| Pierre Girieud, fifteen years ago, already had the concerns of young artists now. He was working on a return to the composite landscape, whereas at that time Impressionism, the taste of the piece, of the fugitive note shone with a brilliant brilliance?
We remember going to see him in his workshop rue des Saules, in Montmartre.
He had brought back from Siena painted landscapes with a great concern for composition, but already figures with harmonious forms were grouped in his canvases according to a beautiful order. It would be curious now to revisit the Temptation of St. Anthony, which included countless characters. Alas! this important work is lost for everyone. Exposed to Moscow, the police of the tsars judged it subversive and had it covered with white lead. The indemnity received by Girieud did not console him for the loss of his picture.
Now, his exhibition of his latest works at the Rosenberg Gallery, rue de la Boëtie, attests to the magnificent effort he has made during the past years. He realized what he had conceived during the war and thus shows us great compositions where nude figures compose harmonious groups in calm landscapes. A great sense of rest, serenity, calm emerges from his solidly established works where nothing is left to chance. If it were necessary at all costs to evoke, in speaking of Girieud, the masters who showed him the way, we would call Cezanne and the Primitives. But, Girieud does not need to be attached to glorious elders, his personality is large enough, either that it deals with a subject of history or mythology, pretext for harmonious figures, in a composite landscape, or that he combs flowers and fruits, or the portrait of Stival.
In other times, Pierre Girieud would probably have been attached to the House of a great lord, lover of beautiful things. What a magnificent residence would have been the one that the painter, for his patron, would have decorated! Pierre Girieud would be an admirable draftsman, a powerful fresco artist, a splendid stained glass painter. The essays he has attempted in these different genres have been conclusive. Why will our era have been so lenient to the great decorators? This will be a question for the historians of tomorrow. |