Voltige
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Atelier Pinton.
With its bolduc signed, n°5/6.
1969.
Jean Picart le Doux was one of the leading figures behind the revival of tapestry. His beginnings in the field dated back to 1943: he then produced cartoons for the liner "la Marseillaise". Close to Lurçat, whom he married to theories (limited tones, numbered cartoons,…), he was a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-cartonniers de Tapisserie), and soon became a professor at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts décoratifs. The State commissioned numerous woven cartoons from him—most of them at Aubusson, some at the Gobelins: the most spectacular were destined for the Université de Caen, the Théâtre du Mans, the liner France, or the Prefecture of the Creuse,… While Picart le Doux's designs were close to those of Lurçat, so were his sources of inspiration and his themes, albeit in a more decorative than symbolic register, where the stars (the sun, the moon, the stars…) and the elements, nature (wheat, vines, fish, birds…), humankind, texts,… all coexist.
Corals, fish, harps (or lyres) were the artist's recurring motifs. And although Picart le Doux was the cartoonist who most often used red grounds, he did not hesitate to use them even for marine subjects.
Bibliography:
Marthe Belle-Joufray, Jean Picart le Doux, Publications filmées d’art et d’histoire, 1966
Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Murs de soleil, Editions Cercle d’art, 1972, n°177
Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux Tapisseries, Musée municipal d’Art et d’Histoire, Saint-Denis, 1976
Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Musée de la Poste, 1980
