A FRENCH REGENCE PASTORAL TAPESTRY BY GUILLAUME WERNIERS, LILLE, CIRCA 1720 Woven in wools and silks including tones of blue, green, purple, red, and yellow, depicting a group of musicians on a grassy knoll in a forest, the background opening to reveal a view over the Chateau de Vincennes, within a tobacco-coloured border decorated with shells, trophies, scrolling foliage and flowering baskets, signed to the lower right corner of the field 'G.W.', currently mounted within a folding frame approximately 256cm high, 285cm wide Provenance: Acquired from 6th Biennale de Paris; Galerie Perrin, Paris, 1972Private Collection, RomeThis finely woven tapestry was produced in the workshop of Guillaume Werniers (d. 1738), originally from Brussels, who succeeded Jan de Melter as the main weaver of Lille. His workshop produced work of comparable quality to those in Brussels and his success led him to enlarge his workshop to 21 looms. The most prolific period of the workshop was in the first decades of his ownership and the majority of his work was supplied to la première noblesse de France. Although he executed some special commissions such as portrait tapestries, a series depicting the life of Christ for the church of St. Saveur in Lille in 1735 and some rare mythological scenes, the vast majority of his works were based on the Teniers pastoral subjects. This scene is interesting in that it combines a Teniers pastoral scene with a grand landscape view of the Chateau de Vincennes, one of the favoured residences of the French monarchs from the 13th century to the early 18th century.