Giraud - Lot 2

Giraud JEAN GIRAUD GIR WORK Le Tireur solitaire (T.2), Les Humanoïdes Associés 1983 Original illustration. Gouache on paper 20.8 × 27.5 cm (8.19 × 10.83 in.) Very composed, strange in its composition, this illustration by Gir, with its silent character absorbed in his solitude, is almost Moebiusian in its introspective mood. What can this cowboy be thinking at this moment, after all his adventures? The man and the cabin merge into the same woody material: the brown of the wall, floor and vest respond to each other, to the point of suggesting that the character is no more than a fragment of the set, a vestige of this world of dust and fatigue. The shadow suggests a moment of setting sun, as the cold falls on an autumn evening. Gir works in a matte palette, dominated by ochres and earthy greys, where the diffused light no longer reveals the hero, but dissolves him in the silence of the landscape. The drawing, with its documentary precision, is nonetheless haunted by a deep melancholy: the bare tree behind the house, the disjointed planks, the cowboy's relaxed posture all make an impression. Here, time weighs heavier than bullets; the lone gunman, standing in the twilight, waits for nothing more - except perhaps the passage of time.