| I am thinking of the magnificent series of landscapes of yours, pines and olive trees, skies and hillsides, ravines and bastides, of such a noble cadence, of a depth so alive, that M. Pierre Girieud sent from the shores of the Mediterranean and where is growing the young mastery already visible in her latest album of lithographs Princess of the Bible and the Fable. What characterizes a Girieud is that he is a builder. But this concern for construction does nothing to lessen, strengthens, on the contrary, his gifts of painter by putting them at the service of one of the most richly cultivated minds that we know. He lived for a long time in Italy, especially in Siena; He has brought back the reviving inspiration which animates all his work.
Long before Cubism, Girieud professed, but for him alone, without manifest or literature by his labor meditated, Girieud put into practice what was precisely useful in the reaction of the rowdy school which is dying, against Impressionism.
But his theories, which only his intimates knew, never carried him to excess. In the face of a Matisse, all lost in her charming sensibility, and who escapes her in vain for the most bizarre reasons, it was excellent that some firm spirits should rise up. Whether he wanted it or not, Girieud was one of those. I know some young painters that his example has supported and strengthened their way. But I repeat, he is not a theoretician; he is a master only brushes in his hand. He is not a painter to program. He is a painter. We will have ten opportunities to talk about him again. |