The Pastoral Amusements

Le Cheval Fondu Tapestry, from the Barlatier de Mas Collection, Sotogrande, Spain

Jean-Baptiste Oudry, etching made by his wife, Marie-Marguerite Froissé, after a painting by Nicolas de Largillière.

The Pastoral Amusements, known in French as "Les Amusements Champêtres", is a series of tapestries designed between 1720 and 1730^[1] by Jean-Baptiste Oudry for Noël-Antoine de Mérou, then director of the Royal Beauvais Tapestry Manufactory. The first production of the designs took place at Beauvais in 1731.^[2] After enjoying huge success the series was later adapted and further developed at Aubusson by Jean-Baptiste Huet the elder (d. 1811).

There are eight designs in the original series

1. Le cheval fondu
2. Colin-maillard
3. La Bergère
4. Le pied de Boeuf
5. Le joueur d'Osselets
6. La Balançoire
7. Le joueur de broches
8. Le joueur de musette

References

• J. Badin, Tapisseries de Beauvais, Paris, 1909
• D. Chevalier, Tapisseries d'Aubusson et de Felletin, Paris, 1988

1. The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 133, No. 1057 (Apr., 1991), pp. 246-248
2. H. N. Opperman, Observations on the Tapestry Designs by J. B. Oudry, Beauvais Memorial Art Museum Bulletin, 1968-9