The comedians
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Legoueix workshop.
No. 4/6.
1959.
Lurçat approached Saint-Saëns, initially a fresco painter, from 1940 onwards. And, during the war, he produced his first allegorical masterpieces, tapestries of indignation, combat, and resistance: 'the Foolish Virgins', 'Theseus and the Minotaur'. After the war, he naturally joined Lurçat, with whom he shared convictions (about numbered cartoons and counted tones, about the specific writing required for tapestry, ...) within the A.P.C.T. (Association of Painters-Cartoonists of Tapestry). His universe, where the human figure, stretched and elongated, holds a considerable place (compared in particular to the place it occupies among his colleagues Lurçat, or Picart le Doux), revolves around traditional themes: women, Commedia dell'arte, Greek myths, ... sublimated by the brilliance of the colors and the simplification of the layout. He then evolved, in the 1960s, towards more lyrical, almost abstract cartoons, where cosmic elements and forces dominate.
The themes of music, theater, and more specifically the Commedia dell'Arte (« the Italian Comedy », 1947 cartoon) are omnipresent in Saint-Saëns: he respects the figures, Lelio and Isabelle, with their very particular drawings, not devoid of humor, in their traditional costumes.
Bibliography :
Cat. Expo. Saint-Saëns, La Demeure gallery, 1970
Cat. Expo. Saint-Saëns, woven work, Aubusson, Departmental Museum of Tapestry, 1987
Cat. Expo. Marc Saint-Saëns, tapestries, 1935-1979, Angers, Jean Lurçat Museum and Contemporary Tapestry, 1997-1998
