Pierre Girieud, Frescoes and decoration

While painting stage sceneries Pierre Girieud realised how large surfaces could have decorative effect.

An art patron from Provence gave him as well as the painters Dufrénoy and Lombard the chance to achieve their first fresco in the narthex of the Saint Pancrace chapel in the Castel of Pradines, in Grambois-Vaucluse.

In 1927, he participated together with other artists in the decoration of Cafe de la Coupole (Montparnasse) where he painted ona pillar .

In 1930, he was asked to representLaw, Les Letters, La Medicine et Les Sciences sur les murs de la Salle du Conseil de l'Université de Poitiers. Ce décor sera présenté à l'Orangerie des Tuileries, faisant de Girieud le premier peintre vivant exposant en ce lieu.
Ces toiles avaient disparu. Elles ont été redécouvertes un jour, par hasard, en 1991 par Monsieur Yves-Bernard Brissaud, enseignant à la Faculté de Droit de Poitiers, dans les combles de cette Faculté.
Elles ont alors été restaurées à partir de 2002 par Monsieur par Benoît Dagron puis remises en place le 15 septembre 2004 dans la Salle du Conseil René Savatier (informations issues d'un article de l'Université de Poitiers et de corrections apportées par M. Brissaud).

En 1932, il orne à fresques les parois d'une chapelle romane transformée en maison d'habitation près de Lourmarin-Vaucluse (Noces de Bacchus et Ariane (wedding of Bacchus and Ariadne), Eurydice aux Champs Elysées (Eurydice to the Elysian fields), Le Couronnement de Psyché(Coronation of Psyche). ).

In 1936, he taught art of fresco at the Fine Arts School in Cairo Egypt and decorated a wall of this school.

In 1937 and 1942, he realizes two decorations today disappeared for a nursery school and the City hall of Ivry. Concerning this last fresco, Girieud in the head of a team of twelve artists, won a competition organized by the Commissionership in the unemployment to the decoration of hall of Ivry. His team consisted of Misses de Andréis and Simonot and Messrs.Boulainghier, Chenu-Tournier, Chesneau, Dewé, Maxime Girieud, Kresser-Desportes, Lanos, Poly, R.C. Prior and Poupart. The surface to be decorated made 300m2 with a panel of 145m2. Will be represented : sports, family, joys of the river, gardens, music and danse, visual art and drama et sciences and natural sciences .

Pierre Girieud contributed to the revival of fresco, an art that had almost disappeared at that time. He published a treatise in which he modernised that technique, and gave advice insisting on the basic principles to be followed.