Maurice SAVIN

Versatile artist (engraver, medallist, ceramist, fresco painter…), during the war Savin was called upon by Guillaume Janneau, who admired the timeless and realistic monumentality of his aesthetic (and whom he suspected would require no transposition in order to suit the Tapestry) to design cartoons for the National Manufactories: «the pleasures and country labours» (4 cartoons), after which «the 12 months of the year» were created simultaneously with his work with the Compagnie des Arts Français. The influence of the technical aspects of medieval tapestry was very strong in the artist, who was attentive to natural dyestuffs in a reduced palette, to the simple forms enabled by the technique of the gros point,… He was one of the most widely represented artists at the seminal 1946 exhibition, with 7 works (only Lurçat, Saint-Saëns and Gromaire had more).

"The Harvest" is contemporary with the cartoon designed for the Gobelins: "The Picking of Apples", derived from the hanging on "the pleasures and rural labours." It shows the same characteristics typical of the artist: a limited but vivid chromatic range, simplified and monumental forms, the density of the composition, and a rustic flavour straight from medieval tapestry. Bibliography: Cat. Expo.

Bibliography:
Cat. Expo. La tapisserie française du Moyen-âge à our days, Paris, Musée d’Art moderne, 1946
Cat. Expo. Le Mobilier National et les Manufactures Nationales sous la IVe République, Beauvais, Galerie nationale de la Tapisserie, 1997
Cat. Expo. La Manufacture des Gobelins dans la 1^weaver mid-20th century, Beauvais, National Gallery of Tapestry, 1999