| Girieud was one of the first young people to claim the rights of the imagination. He is not content to trace the vegetables of the pot-au-feu. It is he who two years ago largely evoked the Temptation of St. Anthony. It is unfortunate that there is a tendency to caricature exaggeration which destroys the style. His homage to Gauguin is far from negligible. The audience will laugh; but is it a criterion when the bourgeoisie laughs? Let us acknowledge the effort made to group the twelve characters by varying the character of their faces and their attitudes. Gauguin's influence is obvious but normal here. The master of Tahiti is dressed in a violet robe, but his arms are very yellow (cooked, you will tell me, by the Oceanian sun). He presides over a Maori agape. Two vahines surround him including a naughty negress who rubs lovingly. Around the table are gathered, as in the tribute to Cezanne Maurice Denis, - friends, admirers, followers of Gauguin; and all in front, two young girls with the pure Aztec profile and dressed in their only bait. The guests are almost all dressed in virulent chlamids, whose colorful excess agrees with the red volcano of the fluorescent wave. It is the Last Supper in Tahiti .. |