Octave GUILLONNET

When he turned to tapestry in the 1930s, Guillonnet already had a long career behind him, marked in particular by a sustained interest in the Arts décoratifs: stained glass, mosaic, and ceramics (including the Manufacture de Sèvres), as well as large-scale mural decoration. First approached, in 1931, by the National Manufactures for seating tapestries, Guillonnet received during the war, from Janneau, administrator of the Mobilier National and of the Gobelins and Beauvais, a commission for three ambitious cartoons (Glorification of Thought, The Masters of Science, Coat of arms of thoughte): these were ultimately woven in the ART workshops only in the late 1940s, by which time Janneau had become its technical adviser.

Guillonnet was one of the main contributors to the Ateliers des Rénovateurs de la Tapisserie: 9 cartoons, several with religious subjects, including our Annonciation woven in 1949 for the Patriarchate of Beirut.
Due to its subject matter (although a revival of sacred art was underway in the post-war period with reconstruction and the Church’s desire to engage modern artists, tapestries with religious themes remained rare at the time), and due to its academic and dated style (despite a renewal of iconography: the angel seen from behind, the scene depicted outdoors…), this design is both an anachronism and a rarity.

Bibliography:
G. Janneau, A. Behna, Tapisseries de notre temps, 1950
Millon-Robert Auction Catalogue, 3 October 1990, lot 37 (cartoon)