MURAL' PAINTING

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 23, 27 January 1923, Page 12

MURAL' PAINTING

ALTERED BY NEW YORK

DECORATOR.

A mingling of the arts which would be extremely amusing if it was not a near-tragedy from an .artist's point of view has just been discovered in the attempt.of a house decorator to improve upon the work of the mural painter, in the ..little chape! of Jeanne d'Arc in, the Hcme for French Working Girls in New York (says the "Times"). It is a beautiful little chapel, and its principal decoration is a large painting, in a half circle above the altar, showing Jeanne d'Arc at Domremy with her sheep. It was painted by one of, the younger artists, Alfred Bigny. It was his first Paris Salon picture, and. soon after appearing there, in 1913, it was brought to this country to find a permanent home in the Jeanne d'Arc chapel. The arti3t was naturally much inter-, ested in the painting, and, returning to this country recently, • one of his first visits was to the painting. After one glance he gasped, closed his eyes, opened them again and wondered if something had happened to either his eyesight or his mind. The picture was entirelychanged.

As his original sketch, which he had brought from Paris with him, shows, the Maid of' Orleans > was seated, quietly looking directly 'to the front, with a meditative expression upon her face. In the background was the river Meuse, the hills back of it, twice famous, now having featured in the battle of Verdun, and there was the church ofDomremy done by the artist from an old print. The sky was a" soft grey. Two slender birch trees stood at one side, there were rocks near the foreground, and sheep, well shorn, to reveal the outlines of the figures.

The. body of the chapel has recently been redecorated, with soft brown walls ■and neatly stencilled bands, and, it is supposed, the decorator decided to "touch up", the painting. It was perhaps too low-toned to suit his fancy. As the artist found it, everything was changed, even to. the expression of the Maid's face.

In place of serious reverie, she whs looking up with an expression of ecstatic piety and brilliantly rouged lips. Her sheep had grown extra coats of wool which took from the lines but gave an added effect of warmth, perhaps, as someone suggested, to meet coming winter conditions. THe rocks had been removed and a few daisies made to grow ir» their place. Dark clouds' had been painted in, and brought low, covering the hills and wiping out the River Meuse. The Domremy church had disappeared entirely. Mr. Rigny, in studying birch trees,, had taken a section of the bark to get the exact silvery quality. The decorator evidently did not care for birch trees, or did not recognise them, arid he turned them brown. He also made a few changes in the Maid's dress.'

As soon as the artist made sure that ■his eyes had not deceived him,, a scaffolding was put up in the chapel for him to work upon, but it took three weeks for him to bring the Maid's eyes again to the'.front,:remove,the rouge from her lips, and ■ turn- his picture'•• into his original conception.