A Stitch in Time
Gregory Hodge
In 1888, Van Gogh made numerous paintings of the landscape in Arles using multicoloured, lozenge-like marks that referenced the woven surface of fabrics and tapestries. During this period, he had studied the colour theories of French chemist Michael E. Chevreul who was the director of the Gobelins Tapestry Manufactory in Paris and had developed a method of intensifying the brilliance of colours by means of contrast.1 Van Gogh tested the effects of different combinations of colour based on Chevreul’s theories aided by a box of colourful balls of wool that he referenced when making paintings.2 Recently, I have been looking at The Hunts of Maximilian, a series of 4.5 x 6-metre tapestries displayed in the Richelieu wing in the Louvre. Woven in Brussels in the 1530s, they came into the collection of Louis XV of France in 1665. The original drawings for these tapestries are attributed to the Netherlandish painter Bernaert Van Orley (1488-1541). Depicting hunting scenes in the Soignes Forest on the outskirts of Brussels, each of the twelve tapestries are dedicated to a month of the year. The landscapes represent the changing seasons and architectural details of the surrounding areas. In the foregrounds are figures dressed in elaborate costumes riding on horses accompanied by dogs hunting deer and boar. Looking closely at the details of these tapestries has played an important role in the development of my new paintings. Scanning across their surfaces one can trace subtle shifts in tone and texture achieved by the weaving together of different coloured threads, along with the gold and silver that was woven within the picture plane. Up-close, in the details, these tapestries reveal a microcosm of visual information and studying them has helped me develop new painterly strategies.
APR/MAY 2022
Tapestries of this size required enormous resources and large workshops of skilled craftspeople. This series took approximately sixty weavers three years to complete. In the mid 1500s, around one third of the population of Brussels worked, in some form or another, in the
1. Brüderlin, Markus, et al. Art & Textiles : Fabric as Material and Concept in Modern Art from Klimt to the Present. Hatje Cantz, 2013 p 143 2. Ibid. p 143
