Serenade
Aubusson tapestry woven in the Pinton workshops.
Circa 1950.
Drawn to large-scale surfaces, under the influence of Untersteller at the École des Beaux-Arts, Hilaire carried out numerous mural paintings. Naturally, starting in 1949, alongside many artists stimulated by Lurçat (he would be part of the A.P.C.T., Association des Peintres-Cartonniers de Tapisserie, with him), he produced numerous cartoons (some dozens), some of which were woven in Beauvais or at the Gobelins.
Our tapestry is probably one of Hilaire's earliest cartoons, at a time when the human figure was still omnipresent (before it nearly disappeared completely around 1960), and when he was responding to many public commissions: our pastoral serenade refers to the "Quatuor," a 1950 cartoon woven at Pinton for the Mobilier National.
Bibliography:
Exhibition Cat., Hilaire, woven work, galerie Verrière, 1970
Exhibition Cat. Hilaire, du trait à la lumière, Musée Départemental Georges de la Tour à Vic-sur-Seille, 2010.
