Jean Lurçat
Encyclopedia
Jean Lurçat was a French artist noted for his role in the revival of contemporary tapestry
.
, he enrolled at La Faculté des sciences de Nancy and studied medicine. He went to Switzerland and Germany (Munich
) and in leaving his educational path, he went to the workshop of Victor Prouvé, the head of the École de Nancy.
with his brother, André. He en-rolled at the Académie Colarossi, then at the workshop of the engraver, Bernard Naudin. He met painters such as Matisse, Cézanne, Renoir
; his friends included Rainer Maria Rilke
, Antoine Bourdelle
, and Elie Faure
. Lurçat and three associates founded the Feuilles de Mai (The leaves of May), a journal of art in which these celebrities participated. He then became an apprentice of the painter Jean-Paul Lafitte with whom he had an exhibition at La faculté des sciences de Marseille
. His first journey to Italy was interrupted in August by the declaration of war. Back in France, Lurçat joined the infantry, but was evacuated on 15 November after falling ill. During his recovery to health, in 1915, he practised painting and lithography
. In July, 1916, he returned to the front, but was evacuated once again due to injury. He never returned to the front. In September, his art was put on exhibition in Zürich
.
Ticino
(Swiss Italy), with Rilke, Busoni, Hermann Hesse
and Jeanne Bucher. His second exhibition took place in Zürich in the same year. In 1920, he travelled extensively: Berlin
, Munich
, Rome
, Naples
. Then he took up residence in Paris with Marthe Hennebert. It was she who wove two tapestries: Pêcheur (Fisherman) and Piscine (Swimming pool). He unveiled in the same year, at Le Salon des Indépendants, two tapestries and four paintings. He met the art merchant, Étienne Bignou.
In 1921, Jean Lurçat met Louis Marcoussis
, he discovered Picasso and Max Jacob
, and created decoration and costumes for Le spectacle de la Compagnie Pitoeff: "He who receives slaps", and then spent the autumn near the Baltic sea. The following year, he created his fifth tapestry, Le Cirque (the circus), for Mme. Cuttoli. His first personal exhibition took place in Paris in April and September. He made a large decoration on a wall (no longer visible today) at the Castle of Villeflix. Then he went to Berlin, where he met Feruccio Busoni.
During the next two years Lurçat resumed travelling. In 1923 he went to Spain; in 1924 he went to North Africa, the Sahara, Greece and Asia Minor. Upon his return, he signed a contract without exclusivity with his friend, Étienne Bignou. His brother André built his new house, Villa Seurat, in Paris. He devoted a portion of the year 1924 to the making of his sixth tapestry, Les arbres (The trees). On 15 December, Lurçat married Marthe Hennebert and traveled in 1925 to Scotland, then Spain and northern Africa. Upon his return, he took up residence at La Villa Seurat. He participated in several expositions with Raoul Dufy
, Marcoussis
, Laglenne and others. He revealed, at the home of Jeanne Bucher, elements of decoration (carpets and paintings) of Le Vertige
, a film by Marcel l'Herbier
. In 1926, he exhibited in Paris and Brussels
, and participated in collective exhibitions in Vienna
, Paris, and Anvers. His fame began due to several articles devoted to him.
. He spent 1929 in Marco. In 1930 he had exhibitions in Paris, London, New York, and Chicago
; he created nine drypoint
illustrations for Les Limbes (The limbo) by Charles-Albert Cingria; and he made another visit to America. In that same year he divorced Marthe Hennebert. In 1931 he married Rosane Timotheef and they took up residence in Vevey
(Switzerland). He wrote several articles about painting, and reduced his production of pictures.
In December, 1932, Lurçat participated in the exhibition Sélections with Matisse, Picasso, Braque
, Derain and Raoul Dufy; the event was organised in New York by the Valentine Gallery. Being aligned with the far left, from then on he often mixed his political opinions with his art. In 1933, he was living in New York. He created the decoration and the costumes for the Jardin Public (Public garden), a ballet by George Balanchine
. 1933 also saw his first tapestry sewn at Aubusson
, following the new and revolutionary technique that he developed.
and Aragon
, the Journées d'amité pour l'union sovétique (The afternoons of friendship for the Soviet Union). In 1936, he exhibited in London
and released his first tapestry, made at la manufacture des gobelins (The manufacturing of the goblins), Les Illusions d'Icare (The Illusions of Icare). In 1937, he met François Tabard.
. In 1940, he collaborated with André Derain and Raoul Dufy.
, André Chamson
, René Huyghe
, Jean Cassou
, and Jean Agamemnon. He was put on the Comité de Libération (Comity of Liberation). He also met Simone Selves who would later become his wife. His adoptive son, Victor was captured while on an intelligence mission in France and was put to death. Lurçat would not learn of his disappearance until the following year.
Lurçat died 6 January 1966 in Saint-Paul de Vence.
Tapestry
Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven on a vertical loom, however it can also be woven on a floor loom as well. It is composed of two sets of interlaced threads, those running parallel to the length and those parallel to the width ; the warp threads are set up under tension on a...
.
Biography
He was born in Bruyères, Vosges, the son of Lucien Jean Baptiste Lurçat and Marie Emilie Marguerite L'Hote. He was the brother of André Lurçat, who became an architect. After his secondary education at ÉpinalÉpinal
Épinal is a commune in northeastern France and the capital of the Vosges department. Inhabitants are known as Spinaliens.-Geography:The commune has a land area of 59.24 km²...
, he enrolled at La Faculté des sciences de Nancy and studied medicine. He went to Switzerland and Germany (Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
) and in leaving his educational path, he went to the workshop of Victor Prouvé, the head of the École de Nancy.
Painting and the War
In 1912, Jean Lurçat took residence in ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
with his brother, André. He en-rolled at the Académie Colarossi, then at the workshop of the engraver, Bernard Naudin. He met painters such as Matisse, Cézanne, Renoir
Renoir
-People with the surname Renoir :* Pierre-Auguste Renoir , French painter* Pierre Renoir , French actor and son of Pierre-Auguste Renoir* Jean Renoir , French film director and son of Pierre-Auguste Renoir...
; his friends included Rainer Maria Rilke
Rainer Maria Rilke
René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke , better known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was a Bohemian–Austrian poet. He is considered one of the most significant poets in the German language...
, Antoine Bourdelle
Antoine Bourdelle
Antoine Bourdelle , originally Émile Antoine Bourdelle, was an influential and prolific French sculptor, painter, and teacher.-Career:...
, and Elie Faure
Élie Faure
Jacques Élie Faure was a French art historian and essayist.- Works :* Vélasquez * Formes et Forces * Les Constructeurs * La sainte Face...
. Lurçat and three associates founded the Feuilles de Mai (The leaves of May), a journal of art in which these celebrities participated. He then became an apprentice of the painter Jean-Paul Lafitte with whom he had an exhibition at La faculté des sciences de Marseille
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
. His first journey to Italy was interrupted in August by the declaration of war. Back in France, Lurçat joined the infantry, but was evacuated on 15 November after falling ill. During his recovery to health, in 1915, he practised painting and lithography
Lithography
Lithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface...
. In July, 1916, he returned to the front, but was evacuated once again due to injury. He never returned to the front. In September, his art was put on exhibition in Zürich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
.
Discovery of tapestry
In 1917, Jean Lurçat made his first tapestries: Filles Vertes (Green Girls) and Soirée dans Grenade (Evening in Grenada). At the end of the war in 1918, he returned to Switzerland where he had a holiday inTicino
Ticino
Canton Ticino or Ticino is the southernmost canton of Switzerland. Named after the Ticino river, it is the only canton in which Italian is the sole official language...
(Swiss Italy), with Rilke, Busoni, Hermann Hesse
Hermann Hesse
Hermann Hesse was a German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. In 1946, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature...
and Jeanne Bucher. His second exhibition took place in Zürich in the same year. In 1920, he travelled extensively: Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
. Then he took up residence in Paris with Marthe Hennebert. It was she who wove two tapestries: Pêcheur (Fisherman) and Piscine (Swimming pool). He unveiled in the same year, at Le Salon des Indépendants, two tapestries and four paintings. He met the art merchant, Étienne Bignou.
In 1921, Jean Lurçat met Louis Marcoussis
Louis Marcoussis
Louis Marcoussis, formerly Ludwik Kazimierz Wladyslaw Markus or Ludwig Casimir Ladislas Markus, was a painter and engraver of Polish origin who lived in Paris for much of his life and became a French citizen.After studying law briefly in Warsaw he went to the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts, where his...
, he discovered Picasso and Max Jacob
Max Jacob
Max Jacob was a French poet, painter, writer, and critic.-Life and career:After spending his childhood in Quimper, Brittany, France, he enrolled in the Paris Colonial School, which he left in 1897 for an artistic career...
, and created decoration and costumes for Le spectacle de la Compagnie Pitoeff: "He who receives slaps", and then spent the autumn near the Baltic sea. The following year, he created his fifth tapestry, Le Cirque (the circus), for Mme. Cuttoli. His first personal exhibition took place in Paris in April and September. He made a large decoration on a wall (no longer visible today) at the Castle of Villeflix. Then he went to Berlin, where he met Feruccio Busoni.
During the next two years Lurçat resumed travelling. In 1923 he went to Spain; in 1924 he went to North Africa, the Sahara, Greece and Asia Minor. Upon his return, he signed a contract without exclusivity with his friend, Étienne Bignou. His brother André built his new house, Villa Seurat, in Paris. He devoted a portion of the year 1924 to the making of his sixth tapestry, Les arbres (The trees). On 15 December, Lurçat married Marthe Hennebert and traveled in 1925 to Scotland, then Spain and northern Africa. Upon his return, he took up residence at La Villa Seurat. He participated in several expositions with Raoul Dufy
Raoul Dufy
Raoul Dufy[p] was a French Fauvist painter. He developed a colorful, decorative style that became fashionable for designs of ceramics and textiles, as well as decorative schemes for public buildings. He is noted for scenes of open-air social events...
, Marcoussis
Louis Marcoussis
Louis Marcoussis, formerly Ludwik Kazimierz Wladyslaw Markus or Ludwig Casimir Ladislas Markus, was a painter and engraver of Polish origin who lived in Paris for much of his life and became a French citizen.After studying law briefly in Warsaw he went to the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts, where his...
, Laglenne and others. He revealed, at the home of Jeanne Bucher, elements of decoration (carpets and paintings) of Le Vertige
Le Vertige
-Production:Robert and Sonia Delaunay, and Robert Mallet-Stevens contributed to the set and costume design for the film.-External links:...
, a film by Marcel l'Herbier
Marcel L'Herbier
Marcel L'Herbier, Légion d'honneur, was a French film-maker, who achieved prominence as an avant-garde theorist and imaginative practitioner with a series of silent films in the 1920s. His career as a director continued until the 1950s and he made more than 40 feature films in total...
. In 1926, he exhibited in Paris and Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, and participated in collective exhibitions in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Paris, and Anvers. His fame began due to several articles devoted to him.
Years of glory
With the company of Marthe, he departed in 1927 for the Orient and spent the summer in Greece and Turkey. He decorated the lounge of the family of David David-Weill. There are four tapestries in developing and implementing L'Orage (The storm), for George Salles (Musée national d'art moderne National museum of modern art). He returned to Greece and Italy (Rome) in 1928 before embarking in October for the United States of America, for his first exhibition in New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. He spent 1929 in Marco. In 1930 he had exhibitions in Paris, London, New York, and Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
; he created nine drypoint
Drypoint
Drypoint is a printmaking technique of the intaglio family, in which an image is incised into a plate with a hard-pointed "needle" of sharp metal or diamond point. Traditionally the plate was copper, but now acetate, zinc, or plexiglas are also commonly used...
illustrations for Les Limbes (The limbo) by Charles-Albert Cingria; and he made another visit to America. In that same year he divorced Marthe Hennebert. In 1931 he married Rosane Timotheef and they took up residence in Vevey
Vevey
Vevey is a town in Switzerland in the canton Vaud, on the north shore of Lake Geneva, near Lausanne.It was the seat of the district of the same name until 2006, and is now part of the Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut District...
(Switzerland). He wrote several articles about painting, and reduced his production of pictures.
In December, 1932, Lurçat participated in the exhibition Sélections with Matisse, Picasso, Braque
Georges Braque
Georges Braque[p] was a major 20th century French painter and sculptor who, along with Pablo Picasso, developed the art style known as Cubism.-Early Life:...
, Derain and Raoul Dufy; the event was organised in New York by the Valentine Gallery. Being aligned with the far left, from then on he often mixed his political opinions with his art. In 1933, he was living in New York. He created the decoration and the costumes for the Jardin Public (Public garden), a ballet by George Balanchine
George Balanchine
George Balanchine , born Giorgi Balanchivadze in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to a Georgian father and a Russian mother, was one of the 20th century's most famous choreographers, a developer of ballet in the United States, co-founder and balletmaster of New York City Ballet...
. 1933 also saw his first tapestry sewn at Aubusson
Aubusson, Creuse
Aubusson is a commune in the Creuse department in the Limousin region in central France.-Geography:...
, following the new and revolutionary technique that he developed.
Expositions in the USSR
In 1934, Lurçat returned to New York where he participated in the creation of new decoration and costumes for a choreography of Balanchine; which he unveiled in Chicago and Philadelphia. Then he returned to Paris and Vevey for the summer. At summer's end, he departed for Moscow, where he had an exhibition at the Musée Occidental (Western Museum), then at the museum of Kiev. In 1935, he painted the Dynamiteros in Spain; with inspiration from the revolution and the War of Spain. In Paris, he participated in the activities of the Association of the revolutionary authors and artists. Then, he followed, with MalrauxAndré Malraux
André Malraux DSO was a French adventurer, award-winning author, and statesman. Having traveled extensively in Indochina and China, Malraux was noted especially for his novel entitled La Condition Humaine , which won the Prix Goncourt...
and Aragon
Louis Aragon
Louis Aragon , was a French poet, novelist and editor, a long-time member of the Communist Party and a member of the Académie Goncourt.- Early life :...
, the Journées d'amité pour l'union sovétique (The afternoons of friendship for the Soviet Union). In 1936, he exhibited in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and released his first tapestry, made at la manufacture des gobelins (The manufacturing of the goblins), Les Illusions d'Icare (The Illusions of Icare). In 1937, he met François Tabard.
Vision of the apocalypse
In 1936, Jean Lurçat was inspired when he saw the tapestry L'Apocalypse (the apocalypse), which was woven in the 14th century. In 1938, moisson was sewn. In 1939, he exhibited in New York and in Paris. In September, he took up residence in Aubusson with Gromaire and Dubreuil in order to renovate the art of tapestry, which at the time had fallen to a low point. His innovative technique used a simplified palette and robust weaving at broad point. During this period he abandoned oil painting in favour of poster paints. The Musée national d'Art moderne (National museum of modern art) acquired Jardin des Coqs (Garden of roosters) and L'home aux Coqs (The man of the Roosters), of which the cardboard would be destroyed by the S.S. in 1944 in LanzacLanzac
Lanzac is a commune in the Lot department in south-western France....
. In 1940, he collaborated with André Derain and Raoul Dufy.
Resistance
In June, 1944, he associated himself with the fighters of the communist resistance, namely, Tristan TzaraTristan Tzara
Tristan Tzara was a Romanian and French avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist. Also active as a journalist, playwright, literary and art critic, composer and film director, he was known best for being one of the founders and central figures of the anti-establishment Dada movement...
, André Chamson
André Chamson
André Chamson was a French archivist, novelist and essayist. He was the father of the novelist Frédérique Hébrard.-Life:Chamson was born at , Nîmes, Gard....
, René Huyghe
René Huyghe
René Huyghe was a French writer on the history, psychology and philosophy of art. He was also a curator at the Louvre's department of paintings , a professor at the Collège de France and from 1960 a member of the Académie française...
, Jean Cassou
Jean Cassou
Jean Cassou was a French writer, art critic, poet and member of the French Resistance during World War II.- Biography :Jean Cassou was born at Deusto, near Bilbao,...
, and Jean Agamemnon. He was put on the Comité de Libération (Comity of Liberation). He also met Simone Selves who would later become his wife. His adoptive son, Victor was captured while on an intelligence mission in France and was put to death. Lurçat would not learn of his disappearance until the following year.
Lurçat died 6 January 1966 in Saint-Paul de Vence.