Gobelins

 

 

Colbert Visiting the Gobelins, Sébastien Leclerc I (French, Metz 1637–1714 Paris) 1665

This etching illustrates a visit to the Gobelins workshops by Colbert de Villacerf, Surintendant des Bâtiments du Roi from 1691 to 1699. The workers are in the process of hanging one of a set of tapestries depicting the Story of Alexander, woven for Louis XIV after designs by Charles Le Brun.

 

In brief – About Manufacture Nationale des Gobelins (Tripadvisor)

The National Furniture Administration and the National Tapestry and Carpet Manufactories have brought together at the Gobelins site four historic institutions that date back to the 17th century: The National Furniture Collection, the Gobelins Tapestry Manufactory, The Beauvais Tapestry Manufactory (some of the workshops are also located in Beauvais), and La Savonnerie Carpet Manufactory.The exhibition space known as “La Galerie des Gobelins” welcomes temporary exhibitions.
Since 1662, when Louis XIV’s finance minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert decided to bring together all of the Parisian weaving and tapestry workshops as well as those set up in Maincy by Nicolas Fouquet in one location, the Gobelins Tapestry Manufactory has continued to play a key role in the history of tapestry. The workshop was named after a family of dyers, the Gobelins, who did business on the banks of the Bievre starting in the mid-15th century. Charles Le Brun, First Painter to Louis XIV, was the manufactory’s first director. He allowed not only painters and tapestry makers, but also goldsmiths, metal casters, engravers, and cabinetmakers to set up workshops at the Gobelins site. Under Le Brun’s supervision, the extraordinary tapestries produced at the manufactory, which were designed for the homes of French royalty and as diplomatic gifts, earned international renown that has survived for more than three centuries.

 Photographie : Jean-Philippe Humbert

Photographie : Jean-Philippe Humbert

Gobelins Manufactory (Wikipedia)

History

The Gobelins were a family of dyers who, in the middle of the 15th century, established themselves in the Faubourg Saint-Marcel, Paris, on the banks of the Bièvre.  In 1602, Henry IV of France rented factory space from the Gobelins for his Flemish tapestry makers Marc de Comans and François de la Planche on the current location of the Gobelins Manufactory adjoining the Bièvre river. In 1629, their sons Charles de Comans and Raphaël de la Planche took over their fathers’ tapestry workshops and in 1633 Charles was the head of Gobelins manufactory. Their partnership ended around 1650 and the workshops were split into two. Tapestries from this early, Flemish, period are sometimes called pre-gobelins.
Death of Constantine tapestry (one in a series) after a design by Rubens woven by Filippe Maëcht and Hans Taye in the Comans-La Planche workshop, 1623-1625.

 

Colbert and Le Brun

In 1662 the works in the Faubourg Saint Marcel, with the adjoining grounds, were purchased by Jean-Baptiste Colbert on behalf of Louis XIV and made into a general upholstery factory, in which designs both in tapestry and in all kinds of furniture were executed under the superintendence of the royal painter, Charles Le Brun, who served as director and chief designer from 1663-1690. On account of Louis XIV’s financial problems, the establishment was closed in 1694, but reopened in 1697 for the manufacture of tapestry, chiefly for royal use. It rivalled the Beauvais tapestry works until the French Revolution, when work at the factory was suspended.

The factory was revived during the Bourbon Restoration and, in 1826, the manufacture of carpets was added to that of tapestry. In 1871 the building was partly burned down during the Paris Commune.

The factory is still in operation today as a state-run institution. The manufactory consists of a set of four irregular buildings dating to the seventeenth century, plus the building on the avenue des Gobelins built by Jean-Camille Formigé in 1912 after the 1871 fire. They contain Le Brun’s residence and workshops that served as foundries for most of the bronze statues in the park of Versailles, as well as looms on which tapestries are woven following seventeenth century techniques. The Gobelins still produces some limited amount of tapestries for the decoration of French governmental institutions, with contemporary subjects.

Rear view of the Gobelin Manufactory, adjoining the Bièvre river, in 1830.

 

The Miraculous Draft of Fishes

Although Gobelins is synonymous with tapestry, the two brothers never wove a thread. Their claim to fame in the tapestry world was making a special Venetian scarlet dye.

 

Winter, Cybele Begs for the Sun's Return

 

Tapestries sought to technically compete with paintings. Hundreds of new dyes were developed to create a range of subtle tonal qualities. Unfortunately, the ravages of time and light have destroyed much of these subtle effects.

 

 

 

 

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Further reading

European Tapestry Production and Patronage, 1600–1800

 

Further viewing

The Art of  Making a Tapestry : The Tapestry Manufactory at the Gobelins, Paris

Les Gobelins – Reportage