Hooked Rug c. 1939

This wool hooked rug was made by Henry Granet, in 1897. I love how Granet took the tradition of rug-making and turned it into a pictorial experiment. It makes me think about what he was trying to conjure up by using these materials. Was it an image from a faraway place he dreamt of? A circus? Or an actual memory? It is so enticing trying to decipher what he was thinking. I am drawn to the red hand on the left of the rug, its fingers splayed open. Is it reaching for one of the two elephants walking across the center? Or is it a symbol? I love how Granet placed the elephants on an abstracted brown ground, almost as if they were walking through mud. It's like he's inviting us to piece together a story, just like he pieced together this rug, one loop at a time.