A Louis XV Beauvais Pastoral Tapestry

The design of this tapestry belongs to a series of eight panels supplied to Beauvais by Jean-Baptiste Oudry (d. 1755) in 1730. Four sets are recorded as having been woven between 1730 and 1733 at Beauvais while the designs were subsequently passed to Aubusson for further weavings. Interestingly the borders of this particular panel are closely related to those woven at the Royal Gobelins Tapestry Manufactory at the time. Oudry indeed became Surintendant at Gobelins in 1733 but no official weaving of this series is documented in their surviving records. However, it is known that various Gobelins workshops resorted to private weavings of sets when the government finances proved instable so there is a possibility that it may form part of a private weaving in one of the Gobelins workshops.