6'1" x 7'10" French Tapestry Rug | 17th Century Pictorial Pastoral Scene | Wool & Silk Flat Weave

This is a flat weave pictorial tapestry woven in the manner of the great 17th century French workshops, where a whole afternoon in the countryside is built up thread by thread instead of knot by knot. At 6'1" x 7'10" it sits in the useful middle ground: large enough to read as a full picture, small enough to hang on a wall over a mantel or to lay in a sitting room, library or formal dining room. The handling is light and supple with no pile, the wool is lifted by silk where the light needs to catch, and the condition is exactly as described, brand new and never used. Every piece we ship carries our certificate of authenticity confirming it is a genuine handmade piece.

Design and Motifs

The scene reads left to right like a stage set. At the left a timber cottage with a lattice window frames a young man in the doorway with a pole over his shoulder, a dog trotting past him and a small group gathered at a trestle table. In the center a couple dance barefoot on the packed earth path, the woman in a striped blue skirt, her partner in a red cloak and straw hat, while a third dancer claps his way toward them past a low wooden fence. At the right a cloth covered bench holds a picnic: a decanter and glasses, a loaf, a basket of 3 corked bottles on the ground, a seated couple in red and blue and a child in a red cap reaching for the table. Beyond the fence a rider herds a flock toward a cluster of tiled farmhouses, and above everything spreads a canopy of 6 great trees with a fallen limb crossing the lower right corner. The border is a rust ground carrying rose and blossom garlands, with a scrolling leaf cartouche worked into all 4 corners and a fine gold guard stripe holding the picture in.

A Soft Multi-Colored Palette of Ivory, Terracotta and Green

The field opens in a warm ivory and pale wheat that stands in for hazy summer air, and that light ground is what makes the picture feel deep rather than flat. Foliage moves through at least 5 greens, from a dark forest teal in the shadowed masses to sage, olive, moss and a buttery gold where sunlight hits the outer leaves, with tree trunks drawn in walnut, chocolate and a dusty mauve brown. The figures carry the strongest notes: tomato red cloaks, a cornflower and slate blue skirt, apricot and marigold bodices, with small touches of cream and rose on the hats and aprons. Framing all of it is a terracotta and burnt orange border strewn with rose pink and crimson roses, ivory blossoms and clear blue florals on green stems, edged by a saffron gold line. It is a genuinely multi-colored piece, but every tone is muted and sun warmed, so it settles easily into cream walls, walnut furniture and antique brass.

Woven in China in the French Tapestry Tradition

This piece is honestly made in China, by weaving ateliers that took up the French tapestry tradition of Aubusson and Beauvais and now produce some of the most capable pictorial flat weave work available anywhere. The technique is slow: the wool and silk wefts are packed by hand across a cotton warp and each color area is built separately, so faces, hands and the thin branches against the sky all have to be drawn in weft rather than suggested by a pile. That is where the skill shows in this one, in the shading of the tree canopy and the small background rider, which is far more demanding than a repeating floral. As a flat woven Oriental rug it is light enough to hang as wall art with a sleeve and rod, and durable enough to live on the floor in a low traffic room, which is why these pictorial panels remain a favorite among collectors of handmade Oriental rugs.