TheGobelins Manufactory (French:Manufacture des Gobelins) is a historictapestry factory in Paris, France. It is located at 42 avenue des Gobelins, nearLes Gobelinsmétro station in the13th arrondissement of Paris. It was originally established on the site as a medieval dyeing business by the familyGobelin.
It is best known as a royal factory supplying the court of the French monarchs sinceLouis XIV, and it is now run by theGeneral Administration of the National Furniture and National Manufactures of Carpets and Tapestries (French:Administration générale du Mobilier national et des Manufactures nationales de tapis et tapisseries) of the FrenchMinistry of Culture. The factory is open for guided tours several afternoons per week by appointment, as well as for casual visits every day except Mondays and some specific holidays. TheGalerie des Gobelins is dedicated to temporary exhibitions of tapestries from the French manufactures and furnitures from theMobilier National, built in the gardens byAuguste Perret in 1937.Along withŌshima-tsumugi from Japan, andPersian carpets, Gobelin Tapestry are considered to be one of the worlds greatest textiles.[1]
TheGobelins were a family ofdyers who, in the middle of the 15th century, established themselves in theFaubourg Saint-Marcel [fr],Paris, on the banks of theBièvre.[2]
In 1602,Henry IV of France rented factory space from the Gobelins for hisFlemish tapestry makers, Marc de Comans and François de la Planche, on the current location of the Gobelins Manufactory adjoining the Bièvre river. In 1629, their sons Charles de Comans and Raphaël de la Planche took over their fathers' tapestry workshops, and in 1633, Charles was the head of the Gobelins manufactory.[3] Their partnership ended around 1650, and the workshops were split into two. Tapestries from this early, Flemish period are sometimes calledpre-gobelins.
In 1662, the works in the Faubourg Saint Marcel, with the adjoining grounds, were purchased byJean-Baptiste Colbert on behalf ofLouis XIV and made into a general upholstery factory, in which designs both in tapestry and in all kinds of furniture were executed under the superintendence of thecourt painter,Charles Le Brun,[2] who served as director and chief designer from 1663–1690. On account of Louis XIV's financial problems, the establishment was closed in 1694, but reopened in 1697 for the manufacture of tapestry, chiefly for royal use.[2] It rivalled theBeauvais tapestry works until theFrench Revolution, when work at the factory was suspended.
The factory was revived during theBourbon Restoration and, in 1826, the manufacture of carpets was added to that of tapestry. In 1871, the building was partly burned down during theParis Commune.[2]
The factory is still in operation today as a state-run institution.
Today, the manufactory consists of a set of four irregular buildings dating to the seventeenth century, plus the building on the avenue des Gobelins built byJean-Camille Formigé in 1912 after the 1871 fire. They contain Le Brun's residence and workshops that served as foundries for most of the bronze statues in the park of Versailles, as well as looms on which tapestries are woven following seventeenth century techniques.
The Gobelins still produces some limited amount of tapestries for the decoration of French governmental institutions, with contemporary subjects.
The museum's gallery reopened to the public on May 12, 2007. Important exhibitions are organized regularly.
A branch of the manufactory was established inLondon probably in the early 18th-century in the area that is nowFulham High Street. Around 1753 it appears to have been taken over by the priest and adventurer,Pierre Parisot, but closed only a few years later.[4]
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One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Gobelin".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 165.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
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