Pierre DUBREUIL

The story is well known: following the commission of the "4 parts of the World" intended to be woven at the Gobelins, Dubreuil was one of the 3 artists, along with Gromaire and Lurçat, who were sent by Guiillaume Janneau, administrator of the Manufactures Nationales, to Aubusson in late 1939, in order to renovate local tapestry production (with the commission of a hanging on the theme of the Gardens). While he shared Lurçat's ideas about the influence that medieval tapestry should exert in order to revitalize the medium, his Cartoons, teeming and resolutely naturalistic (without the dreamlike quality of, for example, a Coutaud), kept him apart from his fellow artist, favoring instead a closer affinity with the work of Maingonnat.

Our tapestry bears witness to Dubreuil's collaboration with the A.R.T. (tapestry renovation workshop) of Antoine Behna (whose, in a state of disrepute for his role during the War, Janneau had been the artistic and technical advisor). The allegorical register, the academic treatment, testify to Dubreuil's classicism: for Behna, he also produced "Vendémiaire", Vera "Fructidor" and also 4 tapestry hangings of the Seasons, all eminently traditional subjects in Tapestry.

Bibliographie :
n°71.