Maurice SAVIN

Savin was a multi-talented artist expressing himself in a whole range of media (engraver, metal engraver, ceramicist, mural painter …). He was contacted during the war by Guillaume Janneau, an admirer of both the monumental timelessness and the realism of his aethetic (which he recognised as being immediately applicable to the constraints of tapestry design), to design cartoons for the Manufactures Nationales : “les plaisirs et les travaux champêtres” (4 cartoons), then the “12 months of the year” were produced at the same time as his work for the Compagnie des Arts Français. The influence of the techniques of mediaeval tapestry is immediately recognisable in his work which shows attention to the use of natural dyes in a limited palette, simple shapes suited to working with gros point, … He was one of the best represented artists at the seminal exhibition of 1946, with 7 pieces on show (only Lurçat, Saint-Saens and Gromaire had more).

Vibrant colours (worthy of a Matisse), an ode to Nature (the variety of foliage…), a pastoral theme (suggested by the straw hat, the cape…): all the rustic charm and the use of techniques inherent to tapestry (plant dyes, large stitches…), typical of Savin, are on display here.

Bibliography :
Exhibition catalogue La tapisserie française du Moyen-âge à nos jours, Paris, Musée d’art moderne, 1946
Exhibition catalogue Le Mobilier National et les Manufactures Nationales sous la IVe République, Beauvais, Galerie nationale de la Tapisserie, 1997
Exhibition catalogue La Manufacture des Gobelins dans la 1ère moitié du XXe siècle, Beauvais, Galerie nationale de la Tapisserie, 1999
^ère moitié du XXe siècle, Beauvais, Galerie nationale de la Tapisserie, 1999