Lot Essay
Les Enfants Jardiniers designed by Charles Le Brun, the director at the Gobelins Tapestry Manufacture from 1662-1690, after a series of entre-fenêtres of the seasons, was first woven in 1685. Louis XIV received the fourth set made in 1703. Usually the set consisted of six tapestries with four of the different seasons. In its later copies, the numbers and the designs varied widely.
This particular tapestry was probably woven in the Gobelins Tapestry Manufacture as the Septième or Huitième Tenture of Les Enfants Jardiniers after 1717 and before 1739. The Septième Tenture was only started after several years of interruption, with new designs by Mathieu, Yvart, Chastelain, Fontenay and Alexandre-François Desportes (d. 1743). The animals were introduced with this Tenture by Desportes.
A closely related tapestry from the château de Pau is illustrated in M. Fenaille, Etat Général des Tapisseries de la Manufacture des Gobelins, Paris, 1903, p. 92, illus. 1. Interestingly, Fenaille omits to mention further weavings of this subject such as the ones in the collection of the comtesse de Toulouse and the duc de Ponthièvre.
This particular tapestry was probably woven in the Gobelins Tapestry Manufacture as the Septième or Huitième Tenture of Les Enfants Jardiniers after 1717 and before 1739. The Septième Tenture was only started after several years of interruption, with new designs by Mathieu, Yvart, Chastelain, Fontenay and Alexandre-François Desportes (d. 1743). The animals were introduced with this Tenture by Desportes.
A closely related tapestry from the château de Pau is illustrated in M. Fenaille, Etat Général des Tapisseries de la Manufacture des Gobelins, Paris, 1903, p. 92, illus. 1. Interestingly, Fenaille omits to mention further weavings of this subject such as the ones in the collection of the comtesse de Toulouse and the duc de Ponthièvre.