Jean PICART LE DOUX

Jean Picart le Doux was one of the leading figures in the revival of tapestry. His beginnings in the field date back to 1943: he then produced cartoons for the liner « la Marseillaise ». Close to Lurçat—whom he married to whose theories he adhered (limited tones, numbered cartoons,…)—he was a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Painter-cartoonists for Tapestry), and soon became a professor at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts décoratifs. The State commissioned him to produce numerous cartoons woven for the most part at Aubusson, and for some at Gobelins: the most spectacular were made for the University of 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 too were his sources of inspiration and his themes; but in a more decorative rather than symbolic register, where the stars (the sun, the moon, the stars…), the elements, nature (wheat, the vine, fish, birds…), mankind, and texts,… all live side by side. In the first half of the 1950s, birds were a recurring motif in the artist’s work, as were the flamelets punctuated with points around the perimeter of the cage. Moreover, the limited chromatic palette calls to mind traditional greens. Bibliography : Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Murs de soleil, Editions Cercle d’art, 1972 ill. Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Musée de la Poste, 1980