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Piet |
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Extract
from an exhibition progam of 1970 in the Galerie Interkunst in Munich
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there is rising interest in this painter and these pictures form an
essential part of his work the private collectors have agreed to make
these pictures available for the actual exhibition to complete the
presentation of his lifework. The pictures show mainly landscapes in Brittany, sometimes including bucolic smalltown scenes as the painter gave way to his typically Parisian propensity to catch also part of the town life – picturesque corners, faubourgs and suburbs. He has a special liking for the life of the simple people, silently doing simple things in their small peaceful world...especially the laundrywomen fascinated him. And it was surely not only the beautiful colours of these scenes that attracted him. The stoop of their backs, washing girls and women, sometimes alone, sometimes in groups must have touched him deep inside – it seems, their unending pains came to him like a symbol of the ordinary life. Not like his friend Henri Toulouse –Lautrec who deliberately wrecked himself, his own nature was rather economical, he concentrated all his power in his work though he could have easily afforded a different life. The great number of small-sized pictures we find in this exhibition bear witness of his temper as painter. When he didn`t work at the easel, he carried a folding chair and his paint-box with him. In the cover of the paint-box he kept the piece of carton with his fresh coloured study. At that time, when nature painting was so important, this was usual practice – the small paint-box-sized pictures are found in the work of all impressionists - still PIET´s perfection remains astonishing. Drawing and colouring of his vivacious study „Bretonischer Markt“ are of sophisticated competence...., the colour accents and the atmosphere of „Am Strand“ give such an intensive impression of the painter´s experience in this very moment that the beholder pretends to stand close to him, looking over his shoulder. There were a lot more examples and PIET was conscious enough about those „miracles of a moment“ to resist „finishing“ a picture. And this is exactly the cardinal virtue of the great French impressionists, this is what makes their secret. Certainly there are some works they put themselves to again and again until every detail was completed , but on the other hand, they saw clearly that a perfect moment had to remain what it was – just a moment, that irretrievable fragments were more important than pedantic completeness. That was not a „program“. Just manifestations of a „bonne peinture“ which doesn`t exist since, cultivated by the circle of painters to which FERNAND PIET belonged in this lifetime and his work belongs still. Anton Sailor |
