BY PHILIPPE BEHAGLE OR NOEL-ANTOINE DE MEROU, AFTER ADRIEN CAMPION AND JOSEPH DE KERCHOVE, EARLY 18TH CENTURY

Philippe Behagle (1641-1705) was a weaver from the Flemish city of Oudenaarde who worked for a time at Gobelins Manufactory in Paris, and later as the head of another workshop in Tournai. In 1684, following the death of its first director, Behagle was tapped to take over Beauvais, ‘Manufacture royale de Tapisseries’, by the Marquis de Louvois, Louis XIV’s First Minister of State. Beauvais experienced a prolific period under Behagle, putting out an estimated 1,300 works between 1684 and 1690. In one document from 1689, Beauvais was recorded as having sold several works depicting ‘oiseaux de la Ménagerie’ and by 1701 the royal collection of Louis XIV has records of owning several tapestries from Beauvais entitled ‘Ports de Mer’.

The birds in this series are likely inspired by the exotic species that Louis XIV had collected at the Menagerie of Versailles to which the artists had access. Adrien Campion, member of the Academy of St Luke in 1676 and Joseph van Kerchove (d. 1724), founder of the Academy of Bruges, studied the birds of the menagerie and worked with Beauvais to create a series featuring them. The tapestry series entitled ‘Les ports de mer’ reproduced the same birds in front of harbor scenes. The series was first produced under the direction of Philippe Behagle but the success was such that it was revived several years after his death under later succeeding director, Noël Antoine de Mérou (director from 1722-1734).

Related Literature:
E. Standen, “The Tapestry Weaver and the King: Phililppe Behagle and Louis XIV,” Metropolitan Museum Journal 33 (1998) New York: pp 183–204.

J. Badin, La Manufacture de Tapisseries de Beauvais depuis ses origines jusqu'a nos jours, Paris, Society de Propagation des Livres d'Art, 1909.

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