Collection Online
Medium
wool
Measurements
196.8 × 565.5 cm
Place/s of Execution
(France)
Accession Number
1121-D4
Department
International Fashion and Textiles
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, 1952
© Jean Lurçat/ADAGP, Paris. Licensed by Copyright Agency, Australia
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Professor AGL Shaw AO Bequest
Gallery location
Gallery 18
Level 3, NGV Australia
About this work

Jean Lurçat is regarded as the driving force behind the revival of tapestry weaving in France during the twentieth century. His tapestries celebrate life, the world and his belief in the preeminence of the Christian god through his favourite themes of the sun, the moon, the stars, animals and humanity. In Adam before Creation, Lurçat explores how all animals initially lived in harmony in the Garden of Eden. As the cat placidly stands with two chickens and a guinea fowl on its back, it shows that Lurçat is more interested in the idyllic world than the corrupted one in which the birds would have been in danger.