| The landscapes of Greece brought back from his last trip, Mr. Pierre Girieud, are bathed in this soft Hellenic light which reminds a little, by its transparency, that of our Provence. Mr. Pierre Girieud is an artist who, while having benefited from the great lesson given by the Impressionists, knew how to stay in the tradition of the classical order.
He could therefore only take advantage of the dilapidated architectures which dominate landscapes flanked by yew trees and which the sun gilds at midday or softly rosy at sunset. The Acropolis, a citadel unique in the world, in all its aspects, is thus restored to us in its dying beauty with a marvelous artistic sense. Landscapes which seem to be composed on their own but in which Mr. Girieud has known how to put a lot of native distinction and whose rhythm of lines and colored planes he has ordered. Athens, thus, resuscitates, after many centuries, with the architectural glory of its temples under an azure sky in which play pretty Mediterranean clouds.
Among the paintings whose quality seems more precious to me, I would point out the view of the Helicon, the bay of Argos and the gulf in the morning, of exquisite brightness, the Acropolis seen from Thesion, the Acropolis and the temple of Jupiter, of a remarkable composition, the Hymette which bathes in an elegiac atmosphere and the Parthenon, sober and almost sculptural.
Sketches for the decoration of the University of Poitiers, victories for the Jas de Puyvert frescoes, various compositions in which Mr. Pierre Girieud proves and his inventive spirit and his great qualities as a designer and decorator complete this exhibition which places at the forefront of painters of his generation this excellent artist whose qualities are style, harmony and love of beautiful craft. |