Jean Picart Le Doux, painter and graphic designer, is one of the most famous tapestry artists of the 20th century.  He was born to the famous illustrator, Charles Alexandre Picart Le Doux.  Along with his adversarial contemporary, Jean Lurçat, Le Doux designed for the world-renowned tapestry workshop, Aubusson.  It was in Aubusson, France where tapestries had been created since the Middle Ages.  Picard Le Doux’s creations are famed for their allegorical expression, (Lurçat’s in contrast have simple symbolism).  Le Doux’s artistic creations were highly sought after in the 1950’s, and today they are masterpieces.  His tapestries can be found in the Musee d’Art Moderne in Paris.  

 

Le Doux was a bookbinder, engraver, publisher and painter before moving into graphic arts and discovering the ancient art of tapestry making.  He also designed the interior of the Compagnie Generale Transatlantique cruiseliner.  Le Doux was first introduced to tapestry cartoons (preliminary designs of the art before it is woven) by Lurçat himself in 1940.  In 1943, he was editor of Association des Peintres-Cartonniers, La Vigne.  In 1945, Le Doux, along with Lurçat and the artist Marc Saint-Saens, founded the Association of Tapestry Cartoon-Painters, which pioneered the revival of tapestry as modern architectural decoration, according to the principle that tapestries should be original works of art, intended for walls and designed for specific architectural spaces. LeDoux, Lurçat and Picasso began placing their art into tapestry form, resulting in a renaissance of the ancient art.

 

Le Doux died in Venice, Italy.  He is buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris.