Jacques Poirier
Encyclopedia
Jacques Poirier was a French
master painter
who lived in Paris
near St Germain-des-Pres. His paintings were done in the realist "Trompe l'Oeil
" style with a mastery and a poetry rarely seen in this genre.
He came to painting quite late after a successful career as an illustrator. Poirier was a contemplative and although his subjects included a bric-a-brac of objects, antiques and other improbable unusable curiosities displayed in ever complex settings, the true subject of his art was natural light and the contemplation of its magical glow. His canvas included riddles and humour -sometimes self-deriding- was often present. He was arguably the best artist in the genre.
Many of his riddles are rebuses, and the simplest are transliterated in the title (e.g. "Pourquoi Faire Simple", "Le Discours De La Méthode", "Petit Hommage A Ce Beau Sexe Tant Chéri" etc.). Others are significantly more complex and long. "Histoire D'H" would be a good example of such an elaborate painting. Starting with the title, we can note on the humoristic side that the capital letter "H" can be interpreted as standing for "Histoire avec un grand H" –History, spelled with a capital H- the expression French speakers use when they want to signify that a given story is significant historically. The title "Histoire D’H" can therefore be seen as humoristic when it is appraciated in a self-referring sense. Naturally, in addition, capital "H" in the title is also a direct reference to Hélène of Troy (Helen of Troy) since this painting re-tells at great length her story, in block letters, starting with L-N-N-É-O-P-Y, translating "Hélène was born in Greek land", ending with blocks showing L-Y-E-D-C and a dice (sounding "D" in French), the end translating "she died there" (see alphabet parlant), as a conclusion to the story (with many more details in between). Another of his painting, "Chanson D'Automne", is the transliteration of a famous poem by Paul Verlaine
(same title).
Poirier's rebuses come often witty with multiple levels of translation and understanding. His work "Artnica" (a play on Arnica
) is a prime example. It is a life size crossword puzzle grid, where words are spelled with objects arranged in wooden boxes. Poirier included a dictionary titled "La Rousse & Le Robert" illustrated by the famous Gabrielle d'Estrée a bare breasted redhead woman. The dictionary's cover page translates pictorially "La Rousse & Le Robert" since "la rousse" means redhead woman (Gabrielle D'Estrée) and "roberts" is old fashioned French slang for breast. Further, the title itself is a joke that associates the names of the two most common rival French language dictionaries "Larousse
" and "Robert
".
Currently the best place to see paintings by Jacques Poirier is on the site of the Galerie Michelle Boulet. Reproductions of his art are otherwise difficult to find online at this point.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
master painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
who lived in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
near St Germain-des-Pres. His paintings were done in the realist "Trompe l'Oeil
Trompe l'oeil
Trompe-l'œil, which can also be spelled without the hyphen in English as trompe l'oeil, is an art technique involving extremely realistic imagery in order to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects appear in three dimensions.-History in painting:Although the phrase has its origin in...
" style with a mastery and a poetry rarely seen in this genre.
He came to painting quite late after a successful career as an illustrator. Poirier was a contemplative and although his subjects included a bric-a-brac of objects, antiques and other improbable unusable curiosities displayed in ever complex settings, the true subject of his art was natural light and the contemplation of its magical glow. His canvas included riddles and humour -sometimes self-deriding- was often present. He was arguably the best artist in the genre.
Many of his riddles are rebuses, and the simplest are transliterated in the title (e.g. "Pourquoi Faire Simple", "Le Discours De La Méthode", "Petit Hommage A Ce Beau Sexe Tant Chéri" etc.). Others are significantly more complex and long. "Histoire D'H" would be a good example of such an elaborate painting. Starting with the title, we can note on the humoristic side that the capital letter "H" can be interpreted as standing for "Histoire avec un grand H" –History, spelled with a capital H- the expression French speakers use when they want to signify that a given story is significant historically. The title "Histoire D’H" can therefore be seen as humoristic when it is appraciated in a self-referring sense. Naturally, in addition, capital "H" in the title is also a direct reference to Hélène of Troy (Helen of Troy) since this painting re-tells at great length her story, in block letters, starting with L-N-N-É-O-P-Y, translating "Hélène was born in Greek land", ending with blocks showing L-Y-E-D-C and a dice (sounding "D" in French), the end translating "she died there" (see alphabet parlant), as a conclusion to the story (with many more details in between). Another of his painting, "Chanson D'Automne", is the transliteration of a famous poem by Paul Verlaine
Paul Verlaine
Paul-Marie Verlaine was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international and French poetry.-Early life:...
(same title).
Poirier's rebuses come often witty with multiple levels of translation and understanding. His work "Artnica" (a play on Arnica
Arnica montana
Arnica montana, known commonly as leopard's bane, wolf's bane, mountain tobacco and mountain arnica, is a European flowering plant with large yellow capitula....
) is a prime example. It is a life size crossword puzzle grid, where words are spelled with objects arranged in wooden boxes. Poirier included a dictionary titled "La Rousse & Le Robert" illustrated by the famous Gabrielle d'Estrée a bare breasted redhead woman. The dictionary's cover page translates pictorially "La Rousse & Le Robert" since "la rousse" means redhead woman (Gabrielle D'Estrée) and "roberts" is old fashioned French slang for breast. Further, the title itself is a joke that associates the names of the two most common rival French language dictionaries "Larousse
Petit Larousse
Le Petit Larousse Illustré, commonly known simply as Le Petit Larousse, is a French-language reference book first appearing in 1905 and later published in a 100th anniversary edition in 2005...
" and "Robert
Petit Robert
Le Petit Robert is a popular single-volume French dictionary first published by Paul Robert in 1967, an abridgement of his eight-volume Dictionnaire alphabétique et analogique de la langue française....
".
Currently the best place to see paintings by Jacques Poirier is on the site of the Galerie Michelle Boulet. Reproductions of his art are otherwise difficult to find online at this point.