René Perrot (1912-1979) - Sans titre · Grande gouache pour tapisserie

This is a large gouache by René Perrot: preparation cardboard for tapestry.
144 x 118 cm. A rare large painting by René Perrot (1912-1979)
crease mark from folding in the center, small holes along the four edges (hanging).

Son of schoolteachers and of peasant ancestry on his mother’s side, René Perrot was born and grew up in Cuse-et-Adrisans, a small village in Franche-Comté. From 1932 to 1936 he attended the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs in Paris (where he would later teach). His professors included Léon Deshairs, Raymond Legueult and especially Cassandre, who encouraged him, as well as Carlu, to pursue a career as a poster designer, a path he followed until his mobilization in 1939.
He shared a studio in Paris on Rue du Saint-Gothard with a dog, seven cats and two hundred fish. There he met Jean Lurçat and numerous artists from all over Europe.
Often accompanied by various animals such as his dogs or cats, his favorite animal, almost a totem, was the owl and its cousins the owls, which he never ceased to defend and protect. He said he was deeply affected in his childhood by a tawny owl found nailed to a barn door to ward off a supposed bad luck. These nocturnes would be included even in his most monumental tapestries.

Grisette, a small long-eared owl born in captivity, entrusted to him by a veterinarian, would live about ten years in semi-liberty in his Paris studio during the 1960s.
René Perrot is best known for the some 400 original cartoons for tapestries woven — often in several copies — at Felletin, Aubusson or the Gobelins, the fruits of official or private commissions. He was the originator of the revival of this wall art alongside his elder by twenty years, Jean Lurçat. In 1945 he was named artistic advisor to the Rivière des Borderies manufactory (future Pinton manufactory), which he helped to revive and bring back into activity by working closely with the Creuse ateliers of basse lice. In 1946, he participated in the exhibition at the Musée national d’Art moderne “La tapisserie française du Moyen Âge à nos jours” alongside older artists such as Lurçat, Picard le Doux, Saint Saëns and Dom Robert. He convinced his friend Manessier, former member of Jeune France, to create a first tapestry cartoon “La construction de l’Arche” which was woven at Felletin, helping to provide work for the loom operators.

For more information:
https://www.beauxarts.com/expos/rene-perrot-le-maitre-de-la-tapisserie-qui-murmurait-a-loreille-des-hiboux/

This work comes from the family archives of Georges Tautel (1913–1992), former student of the École des Arts Décoratifs, where he befriended the artist René Perrot. The two artists maintained a close relationship and regularly exchanged drawings and works.

This provenance is notably documented by several black-and-white archival photographs showing René Perrot in his studio during the execution of various cartoons. Among these documents is also a photograph depicting a tapestry woven from one of these cartoons, a self-portrait of the artist, a seasonal greeting card, as well as a portrait of René Perrot with his little owl Grisette.

These archival documents are included with the lot as evidence of the relationship between the two artists and of the work’s familial provenance.