The Royal Factory Of Beauvais

The Royal Factory Of Beauvais
By Coline Duvall

T his too is a creation of Colbert’s. Established in 1664 was to manufacture for the open market to compete with the Flanders tapestries. It was thus conceived as a private enterprise subsidized to a considerable extent by the Royal Treasury but having to live by its sales to the private trade or to the Crown. Louis Hinart, its director, had attracted a large number of Flemish who wove verdure and landscapes with small figures. In 20 years he supplied the Crown Repository with 254 tapestries.

The Lady and the Unicorn
Cluny Museum

After a difficult period at the end of the reign of Louis XIV, Oudry took over the directorship for twenty years, displaying an intense activity.

As he had done at the Gobelins, he demanded of the weavers a faithful reproduction of the colors. Thanks to the tapestries of this period, Beauvais became known throughout the world, even to far-off China, and foreign sovereigns were eager to obtain its precious and refined productions.

After Oudry’s death Beauvais turned increasingly to the manufacture of furniture, upholstery for chairs, sofas, screens.

This intense activity developed during the second half of the eighteenth century, furniture, and upholstery being made to match the hangings.

Manufacture was interrupted by the Revolution in 1792 and was not resumed. When the factory reopened it was as a state enterprise.

Its situation for a number of years was precarious (only 6 weavers were left). Under Napoleon the Beauvais factory revived, and during the nineteenth century it manufactured seat upholstery, chasubles, miters, procession canopies, and a few replicas of old cartoons and endless eighteenth century imitations.

The establishment gradually declined. Jean Ajalbert, its new director from 1917, tried to revive it by opening the doors to contemporary painters. Paul Poiret and Raoul Dufy furnished models for furniture.

In 1936, the Beauvais Factory was incorporated into the National Furniture Storehouse, like the Gobelins and the Savonnerie.

The Beauvais shops were evacuated to Aubusson during the war in 1939.

They, nevertheless, continued to work and finished the weaving of a set of drawing-room furniture after Lurçat. It had been planned that it would return to the Oise in 1940 but the June bombings entirely destroyed the factory buildings. At the end of that same year it set itself up in Paris in the Gobelins enclosure.

Henceforth the destiny of Beauvais was to become progressively linked with that of the Gobelins.

The related articles:

Royal Factories - The Royal Tapestry Workshops
The Royal Gobelins Works In The Eighteenth-Century
The National Savonnerie Factory
The Royal Factory Of Beauvais

Cultural Paris | Eiffel Tower | Home

Cultural Paris

The Royal Factory Of Beauvais By Coline Duvall

Paris Sweet Home ® 2012. All rights reserved.

The Royal Factory Of Beauvais
By Coline Duvall