Battle in front of Florence
« Combat devant FlorencenTapisserie d’Aubusson tissée par l’Atelier Goubely-Gatien.nAvec son bolduc partiellement effacé.n1966. »
Passionate about mural art from 1937 (he took part in the Exposition Internationale), Lagrange drew his first Cartoons in 1945, and became one of the founding members of the A.P.C.T. First expressionist (like Matégot or Tourlière), his Cartoons (from his collaboration with Pierre Baudouin onward) evolved toward a stylization that culminated in the 1970s in Cartoons made of refined signs in pure tones. Moreover, beyond his role in the revival of tapestry (and the related public commissions), Lagrange taught at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts and was also a regular collaborator of Jacques Tati, a designer of monumental sets, and finally an established painter, close to Estève or Lapicque. In the 1960s, the artist expanded the medieval theme of battles and jousts across large surfaces in a stylized, geometric vein, whose high point was the “Hommage à Paolo Uccello” (280 x 680 cm, one example of which is kept at La Faculté des Sciences de Besançon). Still figurative, Lagrange illustrates here, before Florence, with its archetypal monuments visible (the Duomo, the campanile of the Palazzo Vecchio, …), a battle scene arranged as a frieze and effectively inspired by Uccello’s paintings, where lances, horses, and knights intertwine. It should be noted that the beige and brown mottled background on which they stand out is specific to Lagrange, and it was only rarely used by his peers. Bibliography : Cat. Exp. Lagrange tapisseries, Galerie La demeure, 1968, n°4 (reproduit) Cat. Exp. Tapisseries d’Aubusson, Galerie d’Art Municipale, Luxembourg, n°4 du catalogue (non reproduit) Robert Guinot, Jacques Lagrange, les couleurs de la vie, Lucien Souny editeur, 2005, n°40, reproduit (avec comme dimensions 226 x 268 cm) J.J. et B. Wattel, Jacques Lagrange et ses toiles : peintures, tapisseries, cinéma, Editions Louvre Victoire, 2020
