Marc Saint-Saëns

Lurçat approached Saint-Saëns, initially a fresco painter, as early as 1940. During the war, Saint-Saëns produced his first allegorical masterpieces, tapestries of indignation, struggle, and resistance: "The Mad Virgins," "Theseus and the Minotaur." After the war, he naturally joined Lurçat, whose convictions he shared (regarding numbered cartoons and limited tones, the specific style required for tapestry, etc.), within the APCT (Association of Tapestry Cartoon Painters). His world, in which the human figure, elongated and stretched, holds considerable prominence (compared in particular to the role it plays in the work of his contemporaries Lurçat or Picart le Doux), revolves around traditional themes: woman, the Commedia dell'arte, Greek myths, etc., all sublimated by the brilliance of the colors and the simplification of the layout. In the 1960s, he would later move towards more lyrical, almost abstract designs, dominated by cosmic elements and forces.

“The first example of The Drinkers was commissioned by a friend of Saint-Saëns…. The cartoon for The Drinkers , woven in an edition of eight, became a point of contention in the Tabard/Saint-Saëns correspondence because of its weaving cost. The Drinkers bear witness to a robust joie de vivre and are linked to the fertile theme of the vine and the Seasons…” (Exhibition Catalog: Marc Saint-Saëns, Tapestries, 1935–1979, Angers, p. 26). The thematic contrast is striking compared to the artist’s previous cartoons: Orion, Theseus, the Foolish Virgins … He would find this lightness again in The Poacher or The Bouquet .
A copy of the tapestry was included in the 1946 exhibition at the National Museum of Modern Art, “French Tapestry from the Middle Ages to the Present Day” (no. 297).

Bibliography:
Jean Lurçat, French Tapestry, Bordas, 1947, reproduced pl. 42
; Exhibition Catalog: Saint-Saëns, La Demeure Gallery, 1970
; Exhibition Catalog: Saint-Saëns, Woven Works, Aubusson, Departmental Museum of Tapestry, 1987
; Exhibition Catalog: Marc Saint-Saëns, Tapestries, 1935-1979, Angers, Jean Lurçat Museum and Contemporary Tapestry, 1997-1998, reproduced p. 26;
Exhibition Catalog: Workshop Weavings, Artists' Weavings, Ten Years of Enriching the Collections, Angers, Jean Lurçat Museum and Contemporary Tapestry, 2004, reproduced p. 85