A Gobelins Tapestry for the Getty

Signed by Michel Audran (loom manager), April from the Twelve Months, 1746. Getty Museum

The Getty Museum has made another decorative arts acquisition from the age of Louis XV. It's a Gobelins tapestry from the series known as the Twelve Months or the Months of Lucas. Representing the month of April, it's dated 1746 and measures 12-1/2 ft. square. 

The design is based on a Netherlandish Renaissance set that was once in the French Royal collection and incorrectly ascribed to Lucas van Leyden. Today the designs are usually attributed to Bernard van Orley (c. 1490-1541) or his circle. The original set of Twelve Months was burned for its gold threads after the French Revolution. Numerous 17th and 18-century copies of the series survive. Gobelins alone produced at least twelve series, varying in size and format, and including borders in the latest styles. There are series in the museums of New York, Cleveland, and Detroit; single tapestries at several other American institutions. A Flemish version of May is in the Huntington collection. April becomes the only Twelve Months weaving in the Getty collection of about 30 tapestries, all French 18th-century.

The Getty tapestry has a tumultuous history. Hermann Göring confiscated it from Jewish collector Gabrielle Philippson and hung it in his suburban Berlin home. In 1942, after Göring's home was looted, the tapestry was moved to Berchtesgaden, where Monuments Men recovered it after the war. It then spent nearly 70 years in storage at the Louvre. In 2022 it was restituted to Philippson's heirs. They offered it at Christie's Paris in Nov. 2022, where it failed to sell despite a modest estimate of 50,000-80,000 euros. Alexandre Lafore, writing in the Art Tribune, faulted the auction house's "unattractive display that highlighted its tears." Belgian tapestry dealer De Wit conserved April and displayed it to better effect at TEFAF 2024. The Getty bought it from De Wit.

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