| (...) Nine frescoes, entrusted to Messrs. Pierre Girieud, Georges Dufrénoy, Alfred Lombard, Louis Riou, André Favory, Marcel Roche, Pierre Farrey, were, in broad syntheses, to represent, on the walls of the Cour des Métiers, "the history of the Arts": the Arts of life, the arts of death, the religious arts, the arts of stone, wood, metal, the arts of adornment, rustic arts, the arts of fire (...) The painters presented sketches that Mr Gabriel Mourey reproduced in his brochure. We praised the unit for inspiration. Nevertheless, on a report from Mr. Louis Bonnier, director of architectural services, they were finally refused by the Esthetics Committee, as being neither modern in spirit nor in form, and, consequently, contrary to the principles of the Exhibition. Louis Bonnier reproached the painters for having used out-of-date allegories and for having been in no way inspired by the spectacle of life today. (...)
Part of the fault lies in the program chosen: History of the Arts.
It was to arouse reminiscences of museums in the imagination of artists - I think of Messrs. Girieud and Lombard - who are not naturally inclined to reject them. But was there not more archaism in many of the works admitted to the Exhibition? (...) To all these compositions, the fresco would undoubtedly have given an outfit, a discretion, an agreement with the architecture which was too lacking in the oil paintings mounted on the Cour des Métiers. In any case, they could not be worse than the latter, however very modern in intentions, and it would have been difficult for them to match their mediocrity or aggressive vulgarity. (...) |