CIRCA 1691-1694, PROBABLY PARIS, POSSIBLY BY GILLES BACOR, AFTER JEAN BERAIN I

GREDER OF SOLOTHURN
This tapestry was almost certainly commissioned by François Laurent Greder (d. 1716) of Solothurn, Switzerland, after the death of his father Wolffgang in 1691 and before he became a knight of the order of Saint Louis in 1694, as he would have included that honour in his arms. He served in the French army, becaming a brigadier in 1691, which is probably reflected in the military devices below the coat-of-arms. The arms were only used by the Greders while they lived in the estate of Blumenstein; after François Laurent bequeathed the property to his sister and named the house Laurentin the Greders did not use the same arms.
COMPARABLE TAPESTRIES
This tapestry forms part of a group of probably eight nearly identical panels with slight differences in background all bearing the arms of the Greder family. The design appears to be unique to this set. It is believed that two panels had a plain background, two panels a country background and four had formal gardens. Two with country backgrounds are in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (E. Standen, European Post-Medieval Tapestries and Related Hangings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1985, vol. II, cat. 63, pp. 437- 40), while one with plain background is in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City. Formal gardens appear in the following sales: Four from Prince Paul Galitzine, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 10 - 11 March 1875, lot 180, bought by Gauchez, and three again from Madame X (marked on the Frick Library copy of the catalogue 'Maîtresse de Gauchez'), Hôtel Drouot, 20 - 23 April 1892, lots 410- 12. A single panel with formal garden appeared in the Lefortier sale, American Art Association, New York, 27-29 November 1924, lot 513. A tapestry with a similar formal garden and part of the Galitzine group, was in the collection of Ithamy Hussein Pacha, sold Ader Tajan, Paris, 14 March 1993, lot 164, while another is in the Musée de Soleure, Switzerland (P. Kopp, Historisches Museum Blumenstein, no. 1949-18).
DESIGN AND MANUFACTURE
Many aspects of this tapestry recall designs by Jean Bérain I (1640-1711), such as that for a similar border in his Ornemens Inventez in the Rogers Fund of the Museum of Modern Art (Standen, op cit., p. 438). Bérain, who trained under Charles Le Brun, was appointed royal designer to the King in 1674.
Interestingly, all of the Greder tapestries were woven in two halves and joined after the weaving, which would indicate manufacture by a workshop probably less extensive and possibly less well organised than those of Gobelins and Beauvais. Indeed, these tapestries relate closely to 22 armorial tapestries manufactured at Lunéville for the duc de Lorraine by Josse Bacor between 1718 and 1722, now at the Kusthistorisches Museum, Vienna (M. Antoine, Les Manufactures de Tapisserie des Ducs de Lorraine au XVIIIe Siècle (1698-1737), Nancy, 1965, plates XVII and XXIII). However, that workshop was only established in 1718. Gilles Bacor (d. 1714) used Bérain designs and is known to have woven armorial tapestries in Paris. He was one of four brothers who worked for Gobelins at the end of the 17th Century and maintained his own workshop with ten looms in the grand rue Mouffetard. He wove Chancelleries, a series of Diana and two or three sets of Grands dieux after Bérain, with whom he worked closely. He is recorded as working with one nephew Philippe and almost certainly also with Josse Bacor who was also a nephew before the latter moved to Nancy. Lacking any inscription, a firm attribution to a workshop is not possible. (Standen, op. cit., vol II, cat 63, pp. 437-40 and Antoine, op. cit., pp. 51-52).