| The painter Pierre Girieud, a resident of the artists' retirement home, has just died after a long and painful illness which left him no hope in himself. He endured his illness with such stoicism that he still gave his visitors a lesson. Nourished by Greco-Latin culture, he knew that there was more heroism to suffer than to die and that it is beautiful to disappear with a smile on your face. He was one of the most cultivated artists of his time. He had known how to make his society of poets and had devoted to the Gods and Heroes of Antiquity as well as to the Princesses of the Fable and the Legend of lithography albums which cannot be found today. He was born in Marseille in 1875 and after good classical studies went up to Paris, like Mathieu Verdilhan, and Charles Camoin. His greatest friend had been Joachim Gasquet who had supported him with all his fervor.
Pierre Girieud had made his debut at the Indépendants, like almost all the great painters of today. He had exhibited in 1906 at the Salon d'Automne with the Fauves his famous Homage to Gauguin, then at the Berthe Weill gallery and at Kahnweiler, the merchant of Vlaminck, Derain, and the Cubists, works very noticed and very colorful. .
But already, a concern for composition, for the classic arrangement is felt in his paintings. His love of Provence, his vast classical culture, his admiration for the Sienese masters, led him very quickly to abandon Fauvism and to continue the search for lost disciplines. Its evolution was rapid. Already in 1914 and in 1920, at his exhibitions at Léonce Rosenberg, his works had found great serenity. In 1929, at his exhibition at the Druet gallery, Pierre Girieud fully affirmed his desire to rediscover the nobility of style over time. He then turned to decoration and fresco. Decorated the Château de Pradines, the Metal Tower of the Decorative Arts exhibition of 1926, the Council Room of the University of Poitiers, the Puyvert farmhouse and other important monuments.
He also painted sets for Orphée for the Opéra-Comique in 1929.
His easel paintings, mostly inspired by Provence and the surroundings of Marseille and Nice, are painted in a very clear range. Grays and greens, linen blues, pinks are a big part of it. His works, which he waxes and does not varnish, have the dullness of the frescoes. They are real harmonies. They have a lot of style and grandeur, especially since Girieud completes his landscapes with figs and academies of swimmers, beautiful teenagers, shepherds and shepherdesses to whom he gives symbolic value.
From a trip to Greece, the artist brings back some luminous landscapes and performs four color lithographs which he devotes to the Acropolis.
But it is in Lourmarin, Cadière, Baou de Saint-Janet, Fallicon, Beaumes-de-Venise, Moustiers-Sainte-Marie and the Alpilles that seem to have had all the preferences. He leaves unforgettable paintings that amateurs will fight over before long.
Girieud still painted ascetic portraits, including many portraits of himself, and flowers treated with exceptional sobriety.
Pierre Girieud had been part of the Salon d'Automne committee for a very long time, of which he was a member of the Honor Committee. He had exhibited his works at the Salon des Indépendants and the Salon des Tuileries. He was a knight of the Legion of Honor.
He is a great painter, a complete artist like we have very few left who has just turned a blind eye to the light. In the words of Baudelaire about Delacroix that the poet Joachim Gasquet liked to recall when speaking of Girieud. "He painted the heyday of the spirit". In this iron age where the most coarse materialism is imposed on men, is there not more beautiful praise to be made of Pierre Girieud?
Pierre Girieud's funeral took place on Thursday December 30, 1948 in Nogent-sur-Marne. |