| In a few days, the painter Pierre Girieud will be watching on the spot, in Poitiers, the masking of the wall decoration ordered by the government of the Republic, Mr. François-Poncet being superintendent of Fine Arts. I will tell you later how much this work, which consists of covering about one hundred square meters of walls with canvas paint, was paid to the artist - or rather will be, because I do not think that the artists make themselves pay in advance. But we must first indicate the importance of the work.
On the occasion of the planned festivals and of which nobody speaks, in honor of the fiftieth centenary of our Poitevin University, the hall of the University Council will receive a decoration worthy of the high and noble antiquity of the city of Poitiers, its schools, and of the great renown of those who came to teach there. This council hall, twelve meters long, seven wide and four high, houses the University's traditional war memorial. It is she who is called to glorify by painting a university which is five centuries old, which counted among its spiritual infants, Rabelais, Ronsard, du Bellay, Bacon, at the time of its most dazzling splendor. No one will therefore be surprised that the most important of the panels is dedicated to the glory of the University of Poitiers; It is intended to decorate a wall pierced with a door, about twenty-five square meters. The artist, as we can see by the photo opposite, has gathered, in front of a landscape where the architectural mistresses of the city are available - Notre-Dame-La-Grande, the Baptistery, the Saint-Pierre cathedral, the Sainte-Radegonde church, - all the characters who illustrated Poitou from Saint-Hilaire and the poet Fortunat until Charles VII. Above the door, sporting the wall crown, the University embraces two symbolic figures: the Past, bending the forehead under the weight of experience, and the future scanning the sky with a youthful and daring look. Facing the windows through which this asylum of theoretical science takes light on air and life, Pierre Girieud had to deal with a vast panel of twelve meters by four: he divided this space - which seems immense - into four tables devoted to each of the Faculties that make up the University; an allegorical table evokes each subject taught: Law, Medicine, Letters and Sciences. We will see opposite, also the reproduction, Lycurgue and the Oath of the Spartans figures the legislation which made Lacédémone, before Rome, the best-policed ??city of antiquity.
Aesculapius to Epidaurus brings us back to the time when the first doctors bent over the agonizing problem of Matter, studying it in broad daylight, as if the light of the clear Greek sun should help them better see the mystery of the flesh.
Homer and the shepherds, charming agreste painting tells us the poetry of the Baladin inspired by the Hellade, enchanting by an ineffable magic of its verb a whole people of peasants. Finally, more severe, Pythagoras and his school, shows humanity already in progression of the fundamental knowledge of Numbers, mother of all the Arts. Each of these pieces is, of course, treated in the appropriate style, harmonizing subject, shapes and colors, so that the set presented, the most judicious assembly, which delight both the eye and the mind .
Pierre Girieud was, among all contemporary painters, one of the best designated to carry out this wall decoration which will enrich the already so rich artistic heritage of Poitiers. Certainly, Pierre Girieud was especially known as a landscape designer; but it comes from this Provence blessed by all the Gods, that the light gave birth to, smiling, according to the word of Mistral. Under the play of the sun which flies over the splendor of the Durance valley, so dear to Provencal poets, he studied his art for a long time, which he masters today with incomparable authority, with strong virility made of a sensitive talent , subtle and spontaneous all together. Ranked in the forefront of contemporaries loved by writers whose works he illustrates (the Librairie de France recently offered him a banquet), Pierre Girieud, Provençal and therefore Latin, carried within himself, hereditarily, the means to achieve something solid and tall; culture in him supports the painter's gifts. Also! A few days ago when, by a rare favor, he was admitted to exhibit in Paris, at the Orangerie, his paintings, it was a real triumph of which our colleagues transmitted the echoes. A few months ago, I saw in his Parisian workshop, the realization of his projects of which I knew the models: it is really a great work with which he will endow Poitiers, which has the right to be difficult, since it already has many splendid Puvis de Chavannes. Besides these treasures, the work of Pierre Girieud will not fade.
The one whose majestic beauties I have just described so imperfectly, which extend the main line of French decorative painting, he completed it with two panels intended for the last walls. The war memorial will be completed by two figures: Victorious France and Painful France, admirably adapted to the solemnity of the place and the nearby monument. Then along the other panel, cut from windows, eight trompe-l'oeil niches will offer educational virtues: Faith, Abnegation, Vocation, Study, Medicine, Invention, experience and the Truth.
Thus is perfected a work such that Poitiers can take pride in showing it to its courtiers. In a few days, everything will be in place, mounted, adapted, finished under the watchful eye - I will not say of the Master, because Pierre Girieud, master in his art, is as unpopular as possible, but of the artist.
He will also find the main part of his salary in the satisfaction of having erected a lasting and masterful monument - because this formidable work which requires an unparalleled talent, a wealth of unique design and realization, and in addition, a labor material of several years, will be paid to the artist ... fifty thousand francs by the State. It is important to say these things; here is a set that will defy time and honor an entire city and will be paid five hundred francs per square meter all costs paid - because all are borne by Pierre Girieud - the artist will have a few hundred francs. No more.
With what sincerity, the painter was able to represent Faith, Vocation, Invention, and Abnegation among other virtues - which are not only educational! |