Petit Maitre

Persons acute to the latest trends of modern art hurried to Manhattan's Brummer Galleries last week to see the first U. S. showing of a precise, dapper gentleman unknown to U. S. shores, whose reputation in Europe is growing like a downhill snowball.

Pierre Roy is fiftyish, stocky, wears pince-nez and a very neat toothbrush mustache. Educated in England, he still buys his clothes there, is seldom seen without his bowler hat, yellow gloves and tightly rolled umbrella. M. Roy is completely bilingual and looks not unlike Premier Andre Tardieu. He has more over attained the nirvana of the French bourgeoisie, he is a rentier and need never paint a stroke, could live quite comfortably on his inherited income.

Pierre Roy has always been a painter, has given many a nourishing meal to the founders of Cubism. Though Derain, Picasso, Giorgio (horses) de Chirico are still his good friends, he has been influenced by none of them. Slowly, painstakingly, he has developed his own style. He takes about six months to finish a picture. The 42 canvases exhibited last week represent most of his life's work-28 of them already belong to various collectors.

A wordy preface to the exhibition catalog by the French critic, Waldemar George, contains such gems of critical thought as "Art is made of double meanings. Pierre Roy . . . comes out of the infernal circle of twentieth century art and changes his centre of gravity. ... In the view of Pierre Roy the picture ... is not a picturesque visible fiction. It is a second phase of life. It is also a reincarnation." M. George also describes M. Roy as a petit maitre-- a Little Master. By that M. George presumably means that Pierre Roy is not interested in the faces of prime ministers, prostitutes or the effects of the machine age, suitable subjects for Serious Artists. M. Roy is not. He is passionately interested in strips of colored paper, birds' eggs, bits of string, seashells, ribbons, planks with holes bored in them. He paints these with an exact technical dexterity which would do credit to Ingres, David or the 19th Century miniaturists, but in high, exciting modern colors.

To these still lifes Artist Roy attaches sprightly titles: "The Quartermaster's Farewell," "Danger on the Staircase," "Love Killed by the Customhouse," "Offering of Asparagus."

"The Birth of Venus" shows a curling lock of blonde hair tied with lavender ribbon, balanced against a branch of coral which in turn stands on a block of cork and a cockleshell.

"Honor to Unhappy Courage" represents a large oak plank on the seashore through which has been thrust a beautifully painted silver spigot. Several auger holes are cut through the plank, and draped over one corner is a graceful wreath of morning glories.

"Homage to a Hostess" represents an other oak plank (with every grain minutely painted) from which hang a red-feathered trolling spoon and a string of speckled birds' eggs. Pinned to the plank is a sheet of blue notepaper with this message, in English:

"I am so sorry to leave unfinished this picture which I started two days ago for my kind hostess Mrs. Wadsworth."

The Brummer Galleries, sure of the success of Pierre Roy, price his eleven unsold pictures from $1,000 to $2,500.

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