Each with central gold two handled urns with red and white poppies under an arch supported on either side by columns with abundant poppies and leaves,
the whole on a yellow (cafe-au-lait) ground.
The borders with ribbon-tied vine leaf poles and foliate spandrels. Finely woven in wool and silk. Manufacture Royale des Gobelins circa 1680.
This rare pair of tapestries known as ‘Portières’ were almost certainly produced whilst the painter Le Brun was director of the Gobelins factory towards the end of the 17th century. They are probably after designs by JB Blain de Fontenay (1653 - 1715) and woven in the workshop of Jean de La Fraye or d'Etienne Leblond. Blain de Fontenay worked in Gobelins at the time and they could have been part of a collection of tapestries called the ‘Tenture du Triomphe de Flore’. These are a collection of highly decorative and finely woven beautiful tapestries noticeable for the abundance of floral decoration with mainly red and white poppies, which are in the collection of the Louvre Museum in Paris.
The Gobelins Factory was established by Louis XIV (1638–1715) in Paris in 1662 to supply furnishings for the French royal palaces. The quality and design of its high-warp textiles were among the finest in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe. Tapestry production in France was encouraged by Louis XIV's finance minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619–83), who hoped to rival other European factories. In 1662 he brought an existing manufactory, at Gobelins, under control of the Crown for the purpose of supplying royal furnishings and gifts. The factory closed briefly between 1694 and 1699 due to financial difficulties, but it flourished soon after, produced some of the most sophisticated European tapestries of the eighteenth century. Designs for Gobelins tapestries were provided by the leading artists of the day – including Charles Le Brun and Charles Coypel. The panels were woven at one of three workshops, each of which operated under a master workman.
HEIGHT : 298 cm (117¼")
WIDTH: 224 cm (88¼")
HEIGHT: 299 cm (117¾")
WIDTH: 220 cm (86½")
£POA
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