| (...) The painter Girieud refused first to specialize in the production of still lifes. Then it is the painting on canvas which did not appear to be sufficient for its activity. The in-depth study he made on the spot of the Florentines and particularly Sienois of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries communicated to him ten years ago the ambition to contribute to the rebirth of the fresco: the work he painted on the walls of the Pradines chapel at M. Douglas Fitch's, beside G. Dufrenoy and Alfred Lombard prove that the task does not exceed its strength. (...) Durrio and Girieud reacted against false egalitarian tendencies whose complete triumph had led the artist to be no more than a worker. They thought that one could restore one's rights to the imagination and consequently one's place to composition without being accused of literature. This fertile thought (....) has earned us these paintings of Girieud wisely balanced where beautiful human forms and noble horizons seem to borrow from each other part of their power of emotion and associate to communicate more eloquence in the language of lines and colors. (....) |