Normans on the Seine
Aubusson tapestry woven in the Pinton workshops.
With its selvedge signed by the artist, no. 1.
1961.
Lars Gynning is one of the many artists of all nationalities who were woven in Aubusson in the 1950s-1970s, when tapestry was an essential artistic medium.
From a thematic point of view, our cartoon allows for the interweaving, across the centuries, of Franco-Scandinavian relations through the lens of Viking raids up the Seine: naturally, the Bayeux Tapestry comes to mind.
But rather than a historical and diplomatic statement by Gynning, the cartoon actually illustrates a song by Evart Taube, the 20th-century Swedish national poet and bard (whose text appears at the bottom of the composition). Beyond the subject matter itself, the woven translation of an epic chanson de geste evokes the great medieval tradition of tapestry, an unsurpassed model for many tapestry designers of the time. The resolutely modern aesthetic, influenced by Cubism, revitalizes the ancient subject.
