Georges Barrière

Georges Barrière (28 March 1881 in Chablis – 1944 in Đồ Sơn) was a French painter. He went to Paris at the age of 19 to follow the courses of Léon Bonnat and Jules Adler at the Beaux-Arts in Paris. His paintings were shown at the Salon d'Automne in 1903, at the Société des Artistes Indépendants in 1906, and the Salon des Artistes Français in 1909.

During World War I he made many sketches of the trench life of the French soldiers, with titles such as "Sous les Marmites au poste de secours de la cote 204."[1]

After the war his paintings were shown at the Société nationale des Beaux-Arts.[2]

The last ten years of his life were spent in Indochina. In 1934 at the age of 52 he won the Prix de l'Indochine with a portrait of his friend the Swiss sculptor August Heng (1891-1968), but his bursary completed thereafter did not return home to France.[3][4]

However he did not show much interest in local art techniques, and modern Vietnamese art historians have critically compared his Frenchman-abroad approach with painters such as Joseph Inguimberty who took on Vietnamese techniques.[5][6][nb 1] Art historian Nguyễn Quang Phòng in particular (1996) classes Barrière as representative of the second generation of French teachers he considers lacked the talent and even moral character of the first generation.[7] Though other more recent Vietnamese writers have been more appreciative of Barrière.[8] He died at the coastal resort of Đồ Sơn near Haiphong.[9]

Notes
  1. "Nguyen Quang Phong describes Joseph Inguimberty as being "just like a Vietnamese painter who understands and loves his homeland. Compared to him," Nguyen Quang Phong continues, "Georges Barriere was only a 'French colonialist,' painting indigenous landscapes and men with the eyes of a person motivated by curiosity and losing all objective realities which should have captivated the attention of any classical painter."25 To give so much credit to these French artists for their contributions to Vietnamese painting thus jars with current Western scholars' perceptions of Vietnam's response to colonial education."[5]

References
  1. Barrière - sketch of WWI French infantryman in a dugout
  2. Nadine André-Pallois L'Indochine: un lieu d'échange culturel? : les peintres français École française d'Extrême-Orient 1997 "Dès la fin de la guerre, il expose à la Société nationale des Beaux-Arts 329. En 1934, il reçoit, pour le portrait de son ami le sculpteur Auguste Heng 330, le prix Indochine. Georges Barrière est alors âgé de 52 ans, il quitte les Buttes-Chaumont ..."
  3. Indochine: Volume 4, Issue 161 – Volume 5, Issue 180 1943 "Voici le boxe consacré à Georges Barrière. Nous savons qu'un futur numéro d'Indochine parlera bientôt comme il faut de cet artiste. Nous rappellerons cependant que, Prix de l'Indochine en 1934, il n'est pas rentré en France depuis."
  4. Corinne de Ménonville La peinture vietnamienne: une aventure entre tradition et modernité 2003 "On citera donc Georges Barrière, Louis Bate, Jean Bouchaud, Henri Dabadie, Jean Despujol, Evariste Jonchère, Louis Rollet, Raymond Virac."
  5. Phòng, Quang and Tuy Trần. (1996). Mỹ thuật hiện đại Việt Nam. Hà Nội: Mỹ Thuật. pp. 11, 13, 228.
  6. Taylor, Nora. (2009). Painters in Hanoi: an ethnography of Vietnamese art. NUS Press. p. 31. ISBN 9971694530
  7. Nguyễn Quang Phòng, Tuy Trà̂n Mỹ thuật hiện đại Việt Nam (French edition) 1996 "... plein essor à partir de 1925 - justement l'année de la fondation de l'École supérieure des Beaux - Arts de l'Indochine. ... à l'huile, parce que parmi tous les peintres français présents au Vietnam à l'époque - y compris Georges Barrière, le gagnant du prix de peinture de l'Indochine - personne n'avait assez de talent et de qualité morale pour occuper leur place."
  8. Biography of Nguyen Gia Tri "chúng ta cũng nên nhớ đến Georges Barrière, mặc dù không có tiếng tăm gì lắm vào thời ấy, nhưng cũng đã từng được giải thưởng Đông Dương (Prix de L'Indochine)" - translation: "we should also remember Georges Barrière, although he did not have much reputation at that time, but he also won the Prix de L'Indochine"
  9. Ho Chi Minh City University of Fine Arts - Cơ Cấu Tổ Chức Hội Họa Tại Pháp Và Giải Thưởng Hội Họa "Đông Dương"

Images of his works:

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