Grand Lesbos (Baigneuses)

Details

Inscribed with the hand-written number “149” and with an old label with the typewritten inscription “Für Sammlung Erbslöh” and signed by hand by Alexander Kanoldt (as secretary of the Neuen Künstlervereinigung Munich) on the reverse on the stretcher. This work is registered in the online catalogue raisonné of the artist (www.pierregirieud.fr) Literature (selection): Salmon, André, Salon d’Automne, in: Paris-Journal, 30.10.1910; Bidou, Henri, Le Salon d’Automne, in: La Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Paris 5.11.1910, with black and white ill. p. 368 (“Baigneuses”); Fischer, Otto, Das neue Bild, Veröffentlichung der Neuen Künstlervereinigung Munich, Munich 1912, with black and white ill. plate XVIII; Hausenstein, Wilhelm, Der nackte Mensch in der Kunst aller Zeiten und Völker, Munich 1913, p. 192 and 420, with ill.45 on p. 178; Eröffnungskatalog der Galerie Flechtheim, Düsseldorf 1913, with black and white ill. In the advertisements at the back (R. Piper-Verlag & Co., Munich, unpag.);Serrano, Véronique (ed.), Pierre Girieud et l’expérience de la modernité 1900-1912, exhib. cat. Musée Cantini, Marseille 1996, with black and white ill. p. 124.Exhibitions: Salon d’Automne, Grand Palais des Champs-Elysées, Paris 1910; Franz Marc und Pierre Girieud, Moderne Galerie Thannhauser, Munich 1911; Internationale Kunstausstellung des Sonderbundes westdeutscher Kunstfreunde und Künstler zu Cöln, Städtische Ausstellungshalle am Aachener Tor, Cologne 1912, cat. no.247, p. 43, not ill.; Der Blaue Reiter und das neue Bild. of der Neuen Künstlervereinigung Munich zum Blauen Reiter, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich 1999, cat. no.226, with col. illus. plate 152;1912 – Mission Moderne. Die Jahrhundertschau des Sonderbundes, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum und Fondation Corboud, Cologne 2012, cat. no.39, with col. illus. p. 381.Provenance: Collection of Adolf Erbslöh, Irschenhausen near Munich; private collection, Southern Germany.

Descrizione

• Large-format and vivid masterpiece by the artist from the South of France
• Unique and characteristic formal vocabulary strongly influenced by Gauguin and the Fauves
• From the collection of fellow artist Adolf Erbslöh, who encouraged Girieud to take part in the exhibition of the Neue Künstlervereinigung München

“Mr Pierre Girieud exhibited Bathers, which was among the most important works at this Salon.” Guillaume Apollinaire, 1910 “On the right, upon the banks of a blue lake, into which has crept some green, that vibrates and shimmers like lapis lazuli, Mr Girieud has lain calm bathers. They turn their little heads and dreamless gazes towards us. They have long white bodies and wear braids. Some fruit lies strewn upon the grass. Three of them have walked up to their waists into the water and still cloud it with their inverted images. A lemon yellow sky accentuates the blue of the waters.” This was how journalist and art critic Henry Bidou described this large painting in the November 1910 issue of the Gazette des Beaux Arts after discovering it in the Salon d’automn exhibition in Paris. “Grand Lesbos” depicts a group of women in an idyllic landscape. The naked women’s bodies with their long legs and fingers and small breasts are idealized and all radiate the same, cool aesthetic. The faces, on the other hand, look like portraits. The kneeling woman is probably a representation of Girieud’s wife Augusta. Girieud cites various eras of art history in this important painting: the scattered flowers in the grass are reminiscent of the millefleurs tapestries of the late Gothic period, while the barely overlapping fruits in the foreground allude to Cézanne’s apples. The colouring, on the other hand, demonstrates his close contact with the Fauves and Henri Matisse. At the same time, the distinctive contours identify him as the successor to Gauguin and the Nabis. The composition also cites ancient art forms. The women standing in the water look like the Three Graces of Roman mythology. Girieud joined the New Artists’ Association in Munich (Neue Künstlervereinigung München) a year before this painting was created. His painter friend Adolf Erbslöh, the association’s secretary, purchased this painting in 1911 for 3,000 marks. It was not just Erbslöh who was impressed by the work. The piece was described multiple times in the reviews of the Salon d’automn in 1910. André Salmon summarises the meaning of the image in the Paris Journal: Pierre Girieud “achieves a kind of magical simplicity. He is already great because he is free, and creates beautiful works with love and simplicity. The bathers of Girieud justify our statement. Each gesture of the two reclining women in the foreground balances the gestures of the others, the four naked bathers in the background seem to arise from the gesture of the first, and the whole feeling of this painting merges in the pose of a woman crossing her arms over her breasts. The gift of colour is evident in Pierre Girieud. (…) He is an alchemist of colour.”