Pierre Girieud (1876-1948) – "still Life With Hookah" (1922)

Like all avant-garde works of the early 20th century, this painting by Pierre Girieud captivates with its quiet audacity. A hookah, isolated against a monochrome madder-red background, should not possess such visual authority—and yet, it commands the viewer's attention. A close friend of Kandinsky and one of the first French artists to embrace German Expressionism, Girieud was a pivotal figure of modern art. Like his spiritual mentor Paul Gauguin, he did not seek to copy reality, but to translate pure sensations through color and form. Painted in 1922, this work belongs to the artist's period of "Return to Order" following the trauma of the Great War. It displays a structural rigor and chromatic softness typical of his neoclassical turn. That same year, Girieud exhibited his major composition, "An Oriental Afternoon," at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Saint-Étienne, alongside masters such as Matisse, Bonnard, Derain, and Vuillard. Our hookah is a direct testament to this fascination with the Orient that captivated the artist in 1922. A preparatory study of a mandolin, of identical dimensions and frame, confirms that this hookah was part of a series of aesthetic explorations for his large Orientalist compositions. From the collection of Jeanne Girieud, the artist's daughter, the work is presented in its original frame. It is listed in the artist's catalogue raisonné, available online.