| It is as a crowning achievement of a sustained effort in the decorative flower paintings that Mr. Girieud gave us last year this Homage to Gauguin, whose present exhibition is the justifying character. The ornamental bias is formal. But since the synthesis is not a spontaneous operation for M. Girieud, let us give him credit again for deciding the question of drawing according to the wishes he indicates. Timidities delay him. From the point of view of color, Mr. Girieud reasons in imitation of Gauguin. Being less powerfully provided with instinct than his Master, he seems consequently to reason beyond measure, absorbed by the fixed idea of ??a recovery. In front of nature, freed from his mathematical preoccupations, he becomes a simple tourist, intelligent, vibrant and animated. He warms up. The Tuscan sun vivifies his spirit, his charcoal, his palette and advises them an important series of landscapes which mark a stage in the researches of Mr. Girieud, towards the conciliation which will put him in agreement with himself.
And the exemplary perseverance of Mr. Girieud gives us confidence in him |