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Item Ships From: Europe
Modern tapestry from the 20th century, after Joan Miró - No. 1560
By (after) Joan Miró
Located in Paris, FR
Artist: After Joan Miró
Period: 20th century
Style: Modern art
Condition: Perfect condition
Material: Wool
Length: 56 cm
Width: 40 cm
Depth: 0.5 cm
In keeping with tradition, this m...
Category
20th Century French Modern Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Wool
Early Märta Måås-Fjetterström Tapestry in Vintage Pine frame signed Sweden 1930s
By Märta Måås-Fjetterström
Located in Ystad, SE
Early Tapestry by Märta Måås-Fjetterström,
Sweden, 1930s
An early and finely woven tapestry by Märta Måås-Fjetterström, executed during the 1930s and signed MMF.
The tapestry was h...
Category
1930s Swedish Scandinavian Modern Vintage Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Wool, Linen, Pine
$2,563 Sale Price
20% Off
Nice modern French Aubusson style Jacquard Tapestry by « Jacqelot »
Located in Saint Ouen, FR
Discover theBeautiful 1960s tapestry by Antoine DE JACQUELOT ( 1938-2016)
"Les Perdrix"
A graduate of the École des Beaux-Arts de Bourges and the École des Métiers d'Art in Paris, An...
Category
Mid-20th Century French Modern Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Wool, Cotton
French Medieval tapestry, Aubusson 19th - Training dog to hunt bear - N° 1624
By Aubusson Manufacture
Located in Paris, FR
No. 1624 – Medieval tapestry from the Aubusson Manufacture, 19th century – Training of the dog to hunt the bear – 165 W × 150 H
Artist / Manufacturer: Aubusson Manufacture
Period: 1...
Category
19th Century French Medieval Antique Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Wool, Silk
Antique Indian Kashmir Shawl Textile, 19th Century
Located in Ferrara, IT
The softness of the pure Pashmina wool and the skill of the work help us to identify this authentic antique Indian Kashmiri shawl measuring 177 × 173 cm...
Category
19th Century Indian Antique Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Wool
Pretty early 20th century French Aubusson style Jacquard Tapestry
Located in Saint Ouen, FR
Very pretty antique french Aubusson style tapestry with beautiful design from the nature with an eagle. Woven on Jacquard loom with wool and cotton.
✨✨✨
"Experience the epitome of lu...
Category
Early 20th Century French Aubusson Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Wool, Cotton
Pretty fine antique silk french Aubusson tapestry
By Royal Manufacture of Aubusson
Located in Saint Ouen, FR
Very beautiful late 19th century French Aubusson tapestry with a nice design in the garden, two women sitting and talking while a man plays music, with nice light colours with yello...
Category
Late 19th Century French Aubusson Antique Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Silk
Sina Dyks Contemporary Art Tapestry
Lustured Soak
175 x 120 cm
Located in Meer, VAN
Sina Dyks Contemporary Art Tapestry 'Lustured Soak' 175 x 120 cm
Sina Dyks Contemporary Art Tapestry
'Lustured Soak'
175 x 120 cm
Established Dutch textile artist Sina Dyks (The ...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Dutch Modern Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Yarn
Sofa Louis XV, Covered with Authentic Perfect Aubusson Tapestry
Located in Alessandria, Piemonte
1910/M,
I hope You can understand what it is from some photos only.
Museum quality antique sofa, coating with an authentic Aubusson old tapestry: every...
Category
Late 18th Century Italian Louis XV Antique Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Wood
$8,354 Sale Price
20% Off
Florae Incantata Lemon Tree Velvet Tapestry
By Anna Paola Cibin
Located in Milan, IT
Florae Incantata Lemon Tree Velvet Tapestry presents a striking depiction of feminine beauty intertwined with nature's vitality, set against a deep black velvet background. Featuring...
Category
2010s Italian Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Textile
$50,600 / item
Arts
Crafts Oak Framed Embroidery
Located in Petworth, GB
Arts & Crafts Embroidery
‘Queen Eleanor Gives The Poisoned Cup To Fair Rosamond’
Silk on Linen
In a large Arts & Crafts oak frame with copper hand cut nails
Circa 1900
Framed:...
Category
Early 1900s English Arts and Crafts Antique Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Linen, Silk, Glass, Oak
Tapestry Jean Lurcat "Blue Coral" Atlerie Suzanne Goubely-gatien N° 1416
By Suzanne Goubely Atelier, Jean Lurçat
Located in Paris, FR
A stone's throw from the Eiffel Tower We are a family business specializing in the purchase, sale and
expertise of old, modern and contemporary tapestries, rugs, kilims and textiles....
Category
1960s French Aubusson Vintage Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Wool
Unique wall tapestry by Jean Leuenberger
Located in grand Lancy, CH
Unique wall tapestry by Jean Leuenberger
Category
Late 20th Century Swiss Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Fabric
$960 Sale Price
46% Off
Memories of a Panorama 01 Wall Hanging
By Kiki
Joost
Located in Eindhoven, NL
Original artwork from Kiki van Eijk.
These tapestries are reminiscent of Dutch landscapes in which the center of each piece is a tree, woven from gold thread. Each panorama aims to ...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Dutch Modern Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Wool
$6,616 / item
Kalaga Burmese tapestry - Rider on his Horse - 19th - Burma Myanmar Asia
Located in Beuzevillette, FR
Original Burmese Kalaga-style tapestry, dating from the late 19th century.
Tapestry, panel, or wall hanging depicting a rider and his mount, a beautiful horse in relief.
The tapestr...
Category
Late 19th Century Burmese Antique Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Tapestry, Sequins
Textured macrame wall hanging, Spain, 1970s
Located in BARCELONA, ES
Superb macramé wall tapestry made in Spain in the 1970s. Large format. Handmade tapestry composed of different textures and materials creating unique patterns and reliefs. All the ro...
Category
1970s Spanish Hollywood Regency Vintage Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Wool, Cotton
Spring Levee, Jean-Michel Lartigaud - French modern Aubusson Tapestry - No. 1513
By Aubusson Manufacture
Located in Paris, FR
This magnificent modern tapestry from the Aubusson Manufacture, having benefited from a deep cleaning and a careful verification and doubled by experts in our artisanal Workshop. It ...
Category
20th Century French Modern Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Wool
Antique french Needlepoint Panel or border Tapestry
Located in Saint Ouen, FR
Beautiful late 19th century needlepoint tapestry in the form of a stripe or border fragment, with nice floral design and beautiful colours, entirely hand embroidered with needlepoint...
Category
Late 19th Century French Aubusson Antique Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Wool, Silk
Immense 17th Century Flemish Wool Verdure Tapestry
Located in London, GB
Immense 17th Century Flemish wool verdure tapestry
Flemish, 17th Century
Height 323cm, width 424cm
This very large and exquisite tapestry was crafted in wool in Flanders during the ...
Category
17th Century Belgian Baroque Antique Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Wool
Light blue Missoni tapestry for hanging, Italy 1980s
By Ottavio Missoni
Located in Firenze, FI
Tapestry by Ottavio Missoni with the design typical of his style. Characterized by repeated squares with shades of blue. Textures and colors alternate, creating depth and visual dyn...
Category
1980s Italian Vintage Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Wool
Vintage Märta Måås-Fjetterström Clog Tapestry, 1940
s
By Märta Måås-Fjetterström AB 1
Located in Uccle, BE
"Clog," created by Märta Måås-Fjetterström, is a beautifully handwoven flatweave tapestry from Sweden. Handmade in wool using a wool warp, it has framed dimensions of H38 x W40.5 x D...
Category
Mid-20th Century Swedish Scandinavian Modern Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Wool, Oak
Vintage Swedish "Täppan" tapestry
By Märta Måås-Fjetterström AB 1
Located in Uccle, BE
"Täppan," created by Märta Måås-Fjetterström, is a beautifully handwoven flatweave tapestry from Sweden. Made with expert craftsmanship in wool, it measures roughly 24 x 24 cm and be...
Category
Early 20th Century Swedish Scandinavian Modern Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Wool
Juan Miro Tapestry Labelled by Atelier Jules Pansu, France 1990.
By Jules Pansu, (after) Joan Miró
Located in Brussels, BE
Large rug or tapestry by Juan Miro " L'or de l'azur" edited by Atelier Jules Pansu.
Framed in a black wood box.
Labelled.
France around 1990.
Category
1990s French Mid-Century Modern Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Wool, Wood
French Artist Charles Lapicque Tapestry Limited Edition 1/2 "Pelops", 1964
By Charles Lapicque
Located in Paris, France
Exceptional limited edition 1/2 tapestry "Pelops" with certificate from a private collection,
1964.
Ateliers Pinton brothers in Felletin, under the supervision of Pierre Baudouin
2ex + 1EA Editor Aram Iynedjian. The tapestry will be sold with its certificate of authenticity from the gallery.
From the 15th century, the name of Pinton was associated with the Aubusson tapestry. Since then, over the generations, the Pinton family has largely contributed to the development of this fabulous cultural heritage until the creation in the 19th century, of the Felletin factory, in the department of Creuse. Even today, in these workshops, the craftsmen execute the same correct gestures with the same attention to detail and thus extend the chain of the history of the tapestry of tradition but also contemporary. The hand of specialists, the eye of designers and dyers and the taste of the most demanding clientele find their meaning in the fabric of the carpets. The excellence of French know-how, a living heritage society and custodian of Aubusson's cultural heritage, has always collaborated with great artists. The works of Charles Le Brun, Charles Lapicque, Pablo Picasso, Jean-Michel Othoniel, and many other big names in the world of painting, architecture, design, fell into the looms and know-how ancestral of this unique Creuse creator.
Editor Aram Iynedjian
Aram Iynedjian, Lausanne gallery owner and editor of tapestries from Braque, Estève and Lapicque, the latter meets Pierre Baudouin, the most famous of the cardboard painters of the time. The one who translated the works of Le Corbusier, Calder or Picasso into tapestry then collaborates with Charles Lapicque and they will develop a work of great richness.
Lapicque came to realize these two summits which are "Pélops" and "Diane et Actéon".
I realize that you should never try to describe a work of art
Let’s look at it. Let us admire the science of composition, linear purity, technical perfection, the beauty of color, the truth of the drama. Let us see, if we can, the implacable presence of genius.
"We will now understand that after having based a painting on the love of tapestry, it was relatively easy, and very tempting, to build a tapestry faithful to my painting," explained the artist in the exhibition catalog. of the Galerie Verrière in 1970. It was not until 1961 that he began to produce cardboards both for the tapestry of the Lisse in Aubusson, but also at the Mobilier National, with the help of Pierre Baudouin
Charles Lapicque (1898-1988)
Born in 1898 in Theizé (Rhône) in a family practicing both the arts and the sciences, Charles Lapicque is no exception to the rule: gifted for music and drawing, he graduated from the École Centrale in 1921, works as engineer until 1928 before integrating in 1931 a laboratory at the Faculty of Sciences of Paris, where he carried out research on the perception of colors, crowned by the title of Doctor of Physical Sciences in 1938. He thus studies the reactions of the eye in front of an intense light source, at the origin of the formation of starry images which he will use in his works, and defines a theory of the staggering of colors in space which overturns the rules of the Renaissance: "I had shown that the Classic rule, that of Vinci, advocating placing the blues in the distance, the reds, oranges and yellows in the foreground, is
a nonsense; it makes more sense, more favorable to do the opposite. "(In Red and blue in the arts, 1936)
It was around 1920 that Charles Lapicque began to paint in Brittany where he spent every summer since his childhood, first on the motif and then in a workshop that his stepfather Jean Perrin, Nobel Prize in Physics, had him build in 1927 ; he then definitively adopted the work of memory, in accordance with the art of music which he deeply loved and the Bergsonian philosophy of knowledge: "It is up to us to give reality an appearance that it has no itself, a form, a figure (...). "
His youthful production immediately reveals a great originality, oscillating between figuration and abstraction which sometimes intertwine: alongside synthetic paintings by their simplified drawing and their flat colors, he designs an Homage to Palestrina (1925), composed of a grid derived from Cubism, entirely abstract, relayed by a Christ with Thorns (1939), according to a principle that he will develop after 1939, in line with his optical discoveries. In fact, during the war years, an almost abstract period began, that of the tight blue framework, applied to backgrounds ranging from yellow to red and revealing a more or less identifiable world (Jeanne d'Arc crossing the Loire, 1940; Rencontres series, 1940-1945). Exhibited in 1929 by the gallery owner Jeanne Bucher, Lapicque abandoned his scientific career in 1943 to devote himself entirely to painting.
He continued his work which resulted in 1946-1953 in white-frame structures; their much softer lines lead him to the system of
either black or white interlacing which encloses areas of pure color, most often in solid color. With The Battle of Waterloo in 1949, Lapicque still uses optics - zooming in on a given area - to depict spaces with multiple perspectives and decomposed times.
This new interest in the liveliness of color developed in the following period, which can be described as flamboyant or Baroque (1954-1963): illustrated in particular by the series of Breton lagoons and twilight or nocturnal views of Venice in the light. Stars, which the artist himself describes as “daring sweets”, it begins with the Raoul Dufy Prize of the Venice Biennale, awarded in 1953 to the artist who took the opportunity to give free rein to his passion for the Serenissima until July 1956.
Another point in common with his elder brother is the expression of movement. Begun in 1949 in The Battle of Waterloo then in 1952 with Dimanche aux regates, it became an obsession from 1964, in the exploration of new themes, such as the different shots of tennis players captured on the fly (1965), the mythological scenes and sea storms.
These dizzying years precede the artist's last period: as he comes of age, he discovers serenity, revealed by a painting now with acrylic paint, much more peaceful from 1974, which even borders on a childish naivety at the end. of his life.
All of his work includes an astonishing diversity of themes, also nourished by his travels (Rome in 1957, Greece in 1964, Holland in 1974 ...), with a predilection for the sea, rocks, sailboats, music, tennis, horses, wild beasts, but also for history and mythology, as evidenced by knights, kings and ancient gods. It also deploys, in total creative freedom, a wide variety of styles and orientations. Having been one of the pioneers of non-figurative art, thus paving the way for artists like Manessier, Bazaine, Vieira da Silva, De Staël, etc. Owners of the new non-figurative Paris School of the Postwar period, Charles Lapicque then returned to figuration, in a "new interpretation" of appearance, even if he continued to rub shoulders with abstraction at times.
"Drawing runs after color and color after drawing. "
Heir to the Fauves, Charles Lapicque plays like them on pure colors, whose dissonances, associated with a totally free design and an overloaded composition in a multiple space, make him a precursor of the New Figuration in all its forms: the Narrative Figuration born in France in the early 1960s, represented in particular by Gérard Fromanger, Erró, Bernard Rancillac and Gérard Guyomard; Free Figuration born in the early 1980s, marked by Robert Combas, Hervé and Richard Di Rosa, Louis Jammes and François Boisrond, and which, in turn, influenced the American Bad Painting of a Jean-Michel Basquiat or a Keith Haring, deliberately neglected and Expressionist; Lapicque's “Classic subjects” were able to feed Cultivated Painting, which also appeared in the early 1980s with Jean-Michel Alberola, Patrice Giorda and Gérard Garouste...
Category
Mid-20th Century European Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Wool
Contemporary French Hand-Embroidered Pierre Frey Textile Panel
By La Maison Pierre Frey
Located in LEGNY, FR
Elegant and refined, this fabric by the renowned French house Pierre Frey showcases the excellence of French craftsmanship.
Entitled "Farrah", it features entirely handmade embroider...
Category
2010s French Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Fabric, Canvas
Antique Little French Embroidery
Located in Saint Ouen, FR
Beautiful late 19th century French embroidery with silk, originally, seat cover element.
Take a look at other Bobyrug items! , search by "Bobyrug" !
Category
Late 19th Century French Aubusson Antique Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Silk
Dispersions by Grace Atkinson
Located in London, GB
These unique pieces are entirely handcrafted using a traditional technique developed in the 14th century by the Hutsuls; highlanders who have inhabited the Carpathian mountains of Uk...
Category
2010s French Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Wool
Patchwork Army Cloth from Military Uniform/ Wartime Quilts, France, 1866
Located in London, GB
A patchwork panel made from scraps of military uniform dated 1866, commemorating a small military unit in the middle of France. This panel relates to...
Category
18th Century French Antique Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Fabric
$1,624 Sale Price
20% Off
Pretty vintage French Aubusson style Jacquard Tapestry
Located in Saint Ouen, FR
"Discover the timeless elegance of this exquisite vintage French tapestry featuring a galant scene.
Elevate your space with the charm of this beautifully crafted and woven tapestry,...
Category
Mid-20th Century French Aubusson Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Wool, Cotton, Acrylic
17th Century embroidered panel with three Theological Virtues
Located in Delft, NL
17th Century embroidered panel with three Theological Virtues
An embroidered panel of almost 200 cm large, framed behind plastic with a scene of the three Theological Virtues in med...
Category
Mid-17th Century European Antique Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Fabric
Nice vintage French Aubusson Style Panel Jacquard Tapestry
Located in Saint Ouen, FR
"Exquisite French panel tapestry, from the late 20th century, featuring a beautiful design and nice colours, woven at renowned workshops in jacquard looms in France by wool acrylic ...
Category
Late 20th Century French Aubusson Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Wool, Cotton, Acrylic
Vintage Aubusson Style French Jacquard Halluin Tapestry c1940s
By Gobelins Royal Manufactory, Aubusson Manufacture
Located in Bad Säckingen, DE
This vintage French jacquard tapestry, probably crafted in the 1940s in the Aubusson style, showcases a richly detailed hunting scene. Woven in Halluin, a region renowned for its tex...
Category
1940s French Rococo Vintage Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Wool
Pretty Vintage Aubusson Style médiéval design Jacquard Tapestry
Located in Saint Ouen, FR
very beautiful French Aubusson style tapestry, with a design of a medieval tapestries. This tapestry has been made in the renowned “La Filandière” manufacturing
Beautiful colours w...
Category
Mid-20th Century French Medieval Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Wool, Cotton
Mid-Century Modern Tapestry by Jean Picart le Doux,
Hommage a Paul Eluard
By Jean Picart Le Doux
Located in London, GB
This is a stunning tapestry by the well-known tapestry maker Jean Picart le Doux. It is signed on the bottom right hand side. The tapestry is named 'Homage a Paul Eluard...
Category
1950s French Mid-Century Modern Vintage Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Wool
$6,604 Sale Price
59% Off
Large Vintage Decorative Panel, Continental, Needlepoint Tapestry, circa 1980
Located in Hele, Devon, GB
This is a large vintage decorative panel. A Continental, needlepoint tapestry, dating to the late 20th century, circa 1980.
Wonderfully Italianate scene depicting an idyllic European bridge...
Category
Late 20th Century Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Textile
Contemporary Wool Wall Tapestry with Modern Shapes, Opus LIX by Mira Sohlen
Located in 1204, CH
Each tapestry is called Opus followed by its chronological roman numeral in the order they were created. Opus is a latin word meaning a work, used to mean a particular piece of music...
Category
2010s Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Wool
Japanese Antique Silk and Cotton Tapestry
Located in Milano, IT
Wonderful and very rare Japanese tapestry made in the 1900s, made of woven silk and cotton, of absolute fineness.
The tapestry is developed in length ...
Category
Early 1800s Japanese Japonisme Antique Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Fabric, Silk
$2,670 Sale Price
25% Off
Beautiful 1960s Peacock Wall Tapestry
Located in Bern, CH
Beautiful 1960's Wall Tapestry with stylized Peacock motif. Nice example of a Mid Century wall decoration / rug. Yellow, ochre, rust
brown colourways.
Measurements: Height: 56 ...
Category
Mid-20th Century Swiss Mid-Century Modern Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Wool, Fabric
$182 Sale Price
33% Off
French Jacquard tapestry by Art de Lys - The Swing, after jean-Honoré Fragonard
By (After) Jean-Honoré Fragonard
Located in Paris, FR
Jacquard-woven tapestry by Art de Lys, circa 1980 – Louis XVI gallant scene in the style of Jean-Honoré Fragonard – 80 W × 128 H cm
Artist / Manufacturer: Art de Lys Jacquard
Period...
Category
20th Century French French Provincial Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Wool
French Aubusson Tapestry, Circa 1940 - L165xh108cm - No. 1520
By Aubusson Manufacture
Located in Paris, FR
Located a stone's throw from the Eiffel Tower in Paris, we are a French family business
specializing in the purchase, sale, expertise, cleaning, restoration and conservation of
tapes...
Category
1940s French French Provincial Vintage Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Wool
French Aubusson Style Jaquar Tapestry Medieval Design
Located in Saint Ouen, FR
Very beautiful French tapestry with a design of a museum tapestry from 15th century and nice colors, mechanical Jaquar manufacturing woven with wool.
Category
Mid-20th Century French Aubusson Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Wool
French Louis XIV Verdure Tapestry, Aubusson, 1680
Located in Rome, IT
A fine Louis XIV verdure tapestry, Aubusson woven with a wooded river landscape with view of neighboring chateaux, in good four-side floral border.
Measure: cm 200 x 300.
France, sec...
Category
Late 17th Century Belgian Louis XIV Antique Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Wool
pretty vintage French jacquard tapestry « the fountain »
Located in Saint Ouen, FR
Discover the elegance of this exquisite French tapestry featuring a charming scene of a fountain in nature among the trees which are surrounded by rivers. All this is surrounded by b...
Category
Early 20th Century French Aubusson Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Wool, Cotton, Acrylic
Fragonard Honore, The Happy Chances of the Swing - French Tapestry - No. 1451
By Royal Manufacture of Aubusson, Aubusson Manufacture, (After) Jean-Honoré Fragonard
Located in Paris, FR
Located a stone's throw from the Eiffel Tower in Paris, we are a French family business
specializing in the purchase, sale, expertise, cleaning, restoration and conservation of
tapes...
Category
1840s French Aubusson Antique Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Wool, Silk
Flemish Tapestry 18th - The Swiss Guard, Pastoral Passage of the Pope - N° 1483
Located in Paris, FR
18th Century Flanders Tapestry - The Swiss Guard, Pastoral Passage of the Pope - No. 1483
Period: 18th century
Condition: Perfect condition
Material: Wool & silk
Width: 275 cm
Height...
Category
18th Century French French Provincial Antique Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Wool, Silk
Pretty vintage French Aubusson style Jacquard Tapestry
Located in Saint Ouen, FR
"Discover the timeless elegance of this exquisite vintage French tapestry featuring a captivating scene of pastoral love, showing a couple in countryside with the nature and a river ...
Category
Mid-20th Century French Aubusson Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Wool, Cotton, Acrylic
Bobyrug’s Nice Modern French Tapestry Signed Nee
Located in Saint Ouen, FR
Explore timeless beauty with a midcentury French rug by Pauline Nee. This exquisite creation bears the signature touch of Nee Creation, a French enterprise known for crafting modern ...
Category
Mid-20th Century French Modern Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Wool, Cotton
Early 18th Century Needlework Picture Depicting Angels
Located in Chelmsford, Essex
Early 18th Century Antique Silkwork Embroidery Picture. The embroidery is worked in silk on linen ground, in tent stitch or petit point. Colours pinks, blues, cream, gold, greens and...
Category
1730s Antique Europe - Tapestries
Materials
Silk
Tapestry Royal Manufacture of Aubusson, Louis XVI period 1738 at the Gobelins
By Aubusson Manufacture
Located in Madrid, ES
Tapestry from the Royal Manufacture of Aubusson, Louis XVI period , made in 1738 at the Gobelins
One panel from a series of Gobelins tapestries depicting the History of Esther, illustrating Esther seated and attended by handmaidens, one washing her feet in golden basin, another fastening a bracelet, another offering a mirror, all observed by Mordecai, woven in the workshop of Michele Audran after a design by J. F. de Troy.
The Toilet of Esther c.1778-85.Royal Collection Trust-Queens Audience Chamber
Windsor Castle
The Sketches for the Esther Cycle by Jean-François de Troy (1736)
“and the maid was fair and beautiful; whom Mor’decai, ..., took for his own daughter.” (Est. 2:7)
A supple and undulating genius, both a flattering portraitist and a prolix history painter, as well as a brilliant genre painter, in a gallant or worldly vein, Jean-François de Troy (Paris, 1679 – Rome, 1752), solicited, although he had passed the threshold of old age, a new royal commission up to his ambitions. To obtain it, he submitted – successfully - for the approval of the Bâtiments du roi (administration), seven modelli painted in 1736 with his usual alacrity.
Inspired by one of the most novelistic texts of the Old Testament, the Book of Esther, these sketches in a rapid and virtuoso manner were transformed by the artist, between 1737 and 1740 into large cartoons intended to serve as models for the weavers of the Gobelins factory. Showing undeniable ease and skill in the composition in perfect harmony with the sensitivities of the times, the tapestry set met with great success.
The Story of Esther perfectly corresponded to the plan of the Bâtiments du roi to renew the repertoire of tapestry models used for the weavers of the royal factories while it also conformed to the tastes of Louis XV’s subjects for a fantastical Orient, the set for a dramatic tale in which splendour, love and death were combined. Indeed, no tapestry set was woven in France during the 18th century as often as that of Esther.
The series of modelli painted by de Troy during the year 1736 looks to the history of French painting and decoration under Louis XV as much as it does the history of the Gobelins. It probably counts among the most important rococo pictorial groups to have remained in private hands. First the Biblical source illustrated by De Troy which constitutes the base of one of the richest iconographical traditions of Western art will be considered. Then the circumstances and specific character of French civilisation during the reigns of Louis XIV and Louis XV which contributed to making the theme of Esther a relevant subject, both attractive to contemporaries and remarkably in line with the sensitivities of the time will be elucidated.
An examination of the exceptional series of sketches united here, the cartoons and the tapestries that they anticipate as well as a study of their reception will close this essay. The Book of Esther: A scriptural source at the source of rich iconography.
The origin of the Esther tapestry set by Jean-François de Troy – origin and creation of a masterpiece
According to the evidence of one of the artist’s early biographers, the chevalier de Valory, author of a posthumous elegy of the master, read at the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture on 6 February 1762, it was apparently due to early16 rivalry with François Lemoyne (1688-1737), his younger colleague who had precisely just been appointed First Painter to the King in 1736, that had encouraged François de Troy to seek a commission allowing him to show off his ease and his promptitude at the expense of a rival who was notoriously laborious: “M. De Troy, retaining some resentment of the kind of disadvantage which he believed to have suffered compared with his emulator looked to regain some territory by making use of the facility his rival did not possess.
Lemoyne was excessively long in the creation of his works,and M. De Troy of a rare celerity: consequently, with this particular talent, the latter offered to the court to make paintings appropriate to be executed at the Gobelins Factory; and it is to this circumstance that we owe the beautiful series of the Story of Esther, which would be sufficient alone to give him a great reputation.”17 Beyond the suspicion inspired by the topos, which still constitutes, more or less, a tale of rivalries between artists in ancient literature, there is probably some truth in what Valory reports although A.-J. Dezalier d’Argenville (who indicates rather spitefully that de Troy did not hesitate to “cut prices” to impose himself, benefitting from the productivity assured by the unlikely rapidity of his brush)18 proves to be more evasive: “As he looked to busy himself, he had offered to make the paintings that serve as models for the King’s tapestries cheaply: which did not please his colleagues.
He was given a choice of two tapestry series to be made and he took the Story of Esther and that of Jason”.19 Whether or not the choice was actually left to de Troy (which would appear rather casual on the royal administration’s part all the same), it seems likely that the artist, whose contemporaries extol his “fire”, as the faculty of invention was then called, must have ardently aspired to the possibility of using on a very large scale the “creative genius” with which Dezallier d’Argenville credits him. The decoration of the private apartments, the fashion for which Louis XV had promoted at Versailles and Fontainebleau, offered little opportunity to excel in this area. Other than painting for altarpieces, only tapestries could allow comparison with Lemoyne who had been granted – unfortunately for him – a major decoration: the enormous ceiling of the Hercules Room at Versailles. Favoured by the recent improvement in France’s financial situation, the revival of patronage offered de Troy a commission fitting for him, in a field in which, however, he had hardly any experience.
Anxious to renew the repertoire of models available to the Gobelins factory, the Duc d’Antin, surintendant des Bâtiments du roi from 1708 to 1736 followed by his successor, Philibert Orry comte de Vignory, gave him the task of producing seven large cartoons inspired by the Book of Esther corresponding to the brilliant sketches or modelli which de Troy had produced in one go, or almost (very few preparatory drawings can in fact be linked to the Esther cycle and all seem to be at the execution stage of the cartoons).20 Subjected to the approval of the Administration des Bâtiments according to the procedure in use for projects being planned for the Gobelins, sketches made rapidly during 1736 were approved and the project launched immediately. Thereupon came the news of François Lemoyne’s death, who, ground down by work and a victim of his private torment, committed suicide on 4 June 1737.
Against all expectations, de Troy did not replace his rival in the position of First Painter (which remained vacant until the appointment of Charles Coypel in January 1747), which would perhaps have made him too obviously the beneficiary of the drama. The awarding of the position of Director of the French Academy in Rome came to console him while he had already produced (or he was in the process of finishing), in Paris, three of the seven cartoons of the cycle (The Fainting of Esther finished in 1737 and the Toilet and Coronation of Esther, both finished in 1738).
De Troy, we can see, did not follow the order of the narrative but began with the subjects which apparently offered the least difficulty because he had already depicted them, or because they fall into a strong pictorial tradition (such is the case especially for the Fainting of Esther). He had hardly settled at the Palazzo Mancini in August 1738, when his first task which awaited the new director of the French Academy naturally consisted of honouring the royal commission and finishing without delay the final cartoons of the Story of Esther after the sketches he must have taken with him. As prompt as ever, de Troy discharged himself of the execution of the four remaining cartoons in only two years, by beginning with the largest format which allowed him to strike the imagination and to impose himself as soon as he arrived on the Roman stage: the Triumph of Mor’decai which was finished in 1739 (like Esther’s Banquet).
The following year, the Mor’decai's Disdain and The Sentencing of Haman were brought to an end in the same Neo-Venetian style, obviously tributary to Veronese with its choice of “open” monumental architecture which is characteristic of the entire cycle.21 The series, it should be noted, was almost augmented with some additional scenes in the mid 1740s. Indeed, the first tapestry set finished at the Gobelins in 1744 proved to be unsuitable for the arrangement of the Dauphine’s apartments at Versailles for which it had been intended to decorate the walls the following year (cf infra). Informed of this, de Troy, considering that the story of Esther offered “several good subjects,” immediately offered to illustrate one or new subject among those “which could appear to be the most interesting”.
The directeur des Bâtiments Orry, who managed the State’s accounts, obviously judged it less costly to have one of the tapestries widened to fill in the end of the Dauphine’s bedroom,22 which has probably deprived us of very original compositions, because de Troy had already illustrated the most famous themes, those that benefitted from a strongly established iconographical tradition and from which it was not easy to deviate
The Tapestry Set of the Story of Esther
Placed on the tapestry looms of the Gobelins at the end of the 1730s in Michel Audran’s workshop, the cycle created by de Troy aroused true infatuation. The few hundred tapestries made between 1738 and 1797 – all in high-warp tapestry and woven in wool and silk except for four in low-warp made in Neilson’s workshop – show the impressive success of a tapestry set that was without any doubt the most frequently woven of the 18th century in France.
29 Only three cartoons had been delivered by de Troy in 1738 when the first tapestry set was begun by Audran under the expert eye of Jean-Baptiste Oudry to whom the Directeur général des bâtiments, Philibert Orry had assigned the (weekly) supervision of the weaving. During the summer of 1738, the piece of the Fainting of Esther, which Oudry judged to be admirable, was finished.
During the winter of 1742, Oudry informed Orry that about two ells of the Triumph of Mor’decai had been made “with no faults”,that the Coronation of Esther was finished and that the Esther at her Toilet “a very gracious tapestry” was “a little over half” finished. Exhibited at Versailles in 1743, these two last pieces were admired by Louis XV and the Court.
On 3 December 1744, the set of seven tapestries was finally delivered to the Garde Meuble. It was intended, the honour was not slight, to decorate the apartments of the Infanta Maria Teresa Rafaela of Spain whose marriage to the young Dauphin Louis-Ferdinand had been fixed for the following year (it took place on 23 February 1745). Apparently it was thought that the theme of Esther the biblical heroine and wife of a foreign sovereign was appropriate for the apartments of the Spanish Dauphine.
As early as the month of March, the architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel informed de Troy that her grand cabinet was decorated with the “Esther tapestry set” specifying however that “for lack of two small or one large piece, we have not been able to decorate the end of the room”. This difficulty led immediately to the Banquet episode being woven a second time in two parts (they were delivered to the Garde-Meuble on 30 December 1746) to garnish the panels on each side of the bed of the Dauphine who would hardly enjoy them (she died on 22 July 1746 and the decoration was installed for the new Dauphine Maria Josepha of Saxony).
The appearance of the set’s remarkable border, which imitated a richly sculpted wooden frame, should be mentioned. Conceived in 1738 by the ornamentalist Pierre Josse-Perrot and used in the later weavings until 1768, it tended to reinforce the resolutely painterly appearance of the tapestry set which, in this regard, pushed the art of tapestry as far as its ultimate mimetic possibilities. With the exception of Mor’decai's Disdain which had been removed earlier, the “editio princeps” of the story of Esther (from then on in nine pieces) remained at Versailles until the Revolution. Of the eight surviving tapestries, four are at the chateau of Compiègne and four belong today to the Mobilier National. No less than seven tapestry sets reputed to be complete (one of them in fact only had six tapestries) would be produced officially at the Gobelins up to 1772.
Literature:
1- The Œuvres mêlées of an emulator of Racine, the Abbé Augustin NADAL thus include an Esther. Divertissement spiritual which is exactly contemporary with Jean François de Troy’s cycle since it was performed in 1735 and published in Paris three years later.
2-Le Siècle de Louis XIV, 1751, 1785 ed., p. 96-97 for French ed.
3- Lemoyne and de Troy had been obliged to share the First Prize in the competition organised in 1727 between the most prominent history painters of the Académie Royale.
4- Mémoires…, pub. L. DUSSIEUX et al., 1854, II, p.265.
5-The fact that de Troy, at the risk of falling out with his colleagues, did not hesitate to make use of prices in order to convince the new directeur des Bâtiments Philibert Orry, is confirmed by Mariette who adds tersely “it caused much shouting” (pub. 1851-1860, II, p. 103).
6- Abrégé de la vie des plus fameux peintres…, ed. 1762, IV, p. 368-369 20 Early comments on the painter are inclined to present him as a kind of “pure painter”, doing without the medium of drawing, a few intermediary studies between the Esther sketches and the large cartoons at the Louvre nevertheless show that de Troy used red chalk (see in the catalogue, the notice for the Meal of Esther and Ahasuerus under the entry drawing) to change one or other figure.
7-C. GASTINEL-COURAL (cat. exp. PARIS, 1985, p. 9-13) as well as the article by J. VITTET, exh. cat. LA ROCHE-GUYON, 2001, p. 51-55.
8-The Hermitage in St. Petersburg conserves five tapestries of these two royal gifts whose provenance still awaits elucidation (as far as we are aware). In 1766, the Grand Marshal of Russia, Count Razumovski (or Razamowski), acquired the Fainting and the Banquet extracted from the sixth weaving (J. VITTET, 2001, p. 53).
9- Lettres écrites de Suisse, d’Italie…,quoted by J. VITTET, op. cit., p. 54.
10-The tapestry set remained in the hands of a branch of the Hapsburg-Lorraine family until 1933 (ibid. P. 54).
11-Quoted by Chr. LERIBAULT, 2002, p. 97, note 269.
12-Y. CANTAREL-BESSON, 1992, p. 241.
Catalogue
The Esther at her Toilet
Oil on canvas, 57 x 51 cm Provenance: Painted in 1736 at the same time as the six other modelli of the Story of Esther intended to be presented, for approval, to the direction des Bâtiments du Roi; perhaps identifiable among a lot of sketches by Jean-François de Troy in the post mortem inventory of the amateur, historian and critic Claude-Henri Watelet (1718-1786) drawn up on 13 January 1786 and following days (A.N. T 978, n° 30) then in the sale of the property of the deceased, Paris, 12 June 1786, n° 33; Paris, François Marcille Collection (who owned a series of six sketches from which the Triumph of Mor’decai was missing, see infra); Paris, Marcille Sale, Hôtel Drouot, 12-13 January 1857, n° 36; Asnières, Mme de Chavanne de Palmassy ( ?) collection; Paris, Galerie Cailleux; Paris, Humbert de Wendel collection (acquired from the Galerie Cailleux in 1928); by inheritance in the same family; Paris, Sotheby’s, 23 June 2011, n° 61. In order not to add unnecessarily to the technical commentary on each work, the catalogue raisonné by Chr. Leribault which contains a substantial bibliography on the series should be referred to. The other bibliographical references only concern the publications and exhibitions to have appeared and been presented more recently. Bibliography and Exhibitions: Chr. LERIBAULT, 2002, n° P. 247 (repr.); E. LIMARDO DATURI, 2004, p. 28; Exh. cat. NANTES, 2011, p. 138, n° 34, referred to in note 1; Sotheby’s catalogue, Tableaux anciens et du XIXe siècle, 23 June 2011, n° 61 (repr.).
Related Works:
Tapestry cartoon: The cartoon (oil on canvas, 329 x 320 cm), the third made by the artist in Paris after the sketches had been approved by the direction des Bâtiments, is in the Louvre (Inv. 8315). It previously bore the painter’s signature and the date 1738 (inscriptions which are found on the tapestries). The royal administration paid 1600 livres for it on 21 June 1738 and it was exhibited at the Salon in the year of its creation.
Summary Biography
1679 (27 January): Baptism in Paris (Parish of St. Nicolas du Chardonnet) of Jean-François de Troy, son of the painter François de Troy and Jeanne Cotelle, sister of the painter Jean II Cotelle.
1696-1698: Studies (apparently rather turbulent) at the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture.
1698-1708: First trip to Italy. Is obliged to leave Rome in January 1711 after a tempestuous affair (a duel?), de Troy extends the traditional Roman experience as a pensionnaire at the Académie de France by also visiting Tuscany where he stays for a long time, Venice (his art in face has a strongly Venetian character) and Genoa.
1708: De Troy (whose father had been elected Director of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture on 7 July) is agréé and immediately received at the Académie with Apollo and Diana Piercing with their Arrows the Children of Niobe (Montpellier, Musée Fabre) on 28 July.
1710: First royal commission, paid for on 10 May (a sketch representing “the Promotion of the Order of the Holy Spirit” for the tapestry series of the History of the King).
1716: Jean-François de Troy is elected Assistant Professor at the Academy.
1720: He is appointed Professor.
1723: The artist creates the double portrait of Louis XV...
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