Jacques LAGRANGE

An enthusiastic mural artist as early as 1937 (he participated in the Exposition Internationale), Lagrange designed his first cartoons in 1945, and became one of the founding members of the A.P.C.T. His early cartoons were expressionist (like Matégot and Tourlière), then his work evolved towards a stylisation (dating from his collaboration with Pierre Baudouin) which would bring him in the 1970’s to a highly refined style using very pure colours. As well as his important rôle in the tapestry renaissance movement of the period (and the state commissions that went with it), Lagrange would become a teacher at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts, a regular collaborator with Jacques Tati, a designer of monumental elements incorporated in various architectural projects and a recognised painter close to Estève and Lapicque.

« Le verveux » [the fyke net] a large-scale tapestry measuring 203 x 285 cm, woven in the Tabard workshop (and whose cartoon is kept at the cité de la Tapisserie in Aubusson) is a work characteristic of Lagrange’s early style both by its theme (the anachronistic realism of evoking disappearing trades practised by simple people), and its expressionist style. This variant returns to the theme in a smaller scale version with only one human figure and a different colour scheme, however some details remain : the oil lamp, the brightly coloured fish lying on the seabed…

Bibliography :
Exhibition Catalogue Lagrange, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la tapisserie contemporaine, 1987
Robert Guinot, Jacques Lagrange, les couleurs de la vie, Lucien Souny editeur, 2005
J.J. et B. Wattel, Jacques Lagrange et ses toiles : peintures, tapisseries, cinéma, Editions Louvre Victoire, 2020