An  Louis XV Verdure Tapestry

Aubusson, French, circa 1740, from the Royal workshop of Francois Grellet.

Height:  9ft 2in (280cm)        Width:  8ft 9in (270cm)

With the success of the verdures fines after Jean Baptiste Oudry at Beauvais, Aubusson began to make tapestries of a finer weave, especially those made at the Royal workshops. Indeed the tapestries from the workshop of Francois Grellet were considered to be Beauvais work, so fine was their weave.

A tapestry, with similar border, is the Chevalier Collection. This bears in the outer guard border the signature of Francois Grellet. The scene, of a cottage near a river in woodlands, has similarities though it has been reversed.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York have in their collection a verdure tapestry with similar border and colours, though this has been incorrectly attributed to the workshop of Jacques Dorliac circa 1725, tapestries bearing his signature are of much coarser weave, the M.M.A., piece is not signed. In the Hermitage Museum, St.Petersburg, there is a tapestry of similar border, though with a Chinese inspired design.

The present tapestry is in good condition and retains fresh original colours and made with wool and silk threads.

Reference:

D & P Chevalier, The Tapestries of Aubusson and Felletin, 1988, p 122.

Edith Standen, European Post-Medieval Tapestries in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1985, page 620.

N.Birukova, French Tapestries of the XV to XX centuries in the Hermitage Museum,1974, pl 86.