Jean Arp, also known as Hans Arp, was born in Strasbourg on September 16, 1886, and died in Basel, Switzerland, on June 7, 1966. He was a German-born painter, sculptor, and poet who later became a naturalized French citizen. Arp studied decorative arts in Strasbourg, Paris, and Weimar before dedicating himself to poetry. In 1909, he met Paul Klee and participated in exhibitions, including the Blaue Reiter show in 1912.

In 1916, in Zurich and Cologne, he co-founded the Dada movement. He began sculpting in 1917. Close to the Surrealists from 1926 to 1930, he became a founding member of the Abstraction-Création group. His first plaster and marble works date from 1930. He created painted wood reliefs, embroideries, and collages. Meanwhile, sculpture in the round became a significant part of his work.

After the war, numerous solo exhibitions were dedicated to him, starting in 1944 at Peggy Guggenheim’s gallery in New York, followed by shows at Galerie Maeght, Galerie Denise René in Paris, and Sydney Janis in 1950. Arp became an internationally recognized artist. In 1954, he received the Grand Prix International de Sculpture at the Venice Biennale, was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1960, and received the Grand Prix National des Arts in 1963.

From 1952 to 1966, Arp created several tapestries woven in Aubusson by the Picaud workshop, the weaving workshop of the École nationale des arts décoratifs d’Aubusson, the Tabard tapestry manufacture, and the Pinton workshop in Aubusson.