Rouen Resurgent

In 1956 Richard was commissioned to do a painting to commemorate the re-dedication of the Rouen Cathedral after a major rebuilding project. The cathedral had been badly damaged in two Allied bombing raids during the D-Day push into Normandy in the WW2.

Records about the commission itself and the works which came out of it are incomplete. Richard seems to have painted at least four Rouen pictures, but it is proving difficult to unpick which ones were exhibited when because the titles of most of the works were changed from one show to the next and the picture dimensions are …

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In 1956 Richard was commissioned to do a painting to commemorate the re-dedication of the Rouen Cathedral after a major rebuilding project. The cathedral had been badly damaged in two Allied bombing raids during the D-Day push into Normandy in the WW2.

Records about the commission itself and the works which came out of it are incomplete. Richard seems to have painted at least four Rouen pictures, but it is proving difficult to unpick which ones were exhibited when because the titles of most of the works were changed from one show to the next and the picture dimensions are not always quoted. None of them seem to have been delivered to the client and we do not know who the client was.

The four works we know of are:

• Rouen - 20x24in - sold 1958 from Tyrrell and Green 'Painting Now' exhibition for £150
• Rouen 1956  - 24x20in - sold 1959 from 1959 RA summer show for £125
• Rouen Resurgent - 20x40in - sold 1968 for £350
• La Porte Guillaume-Lion, Rouen - 20x16in - last exhibited 1980 - no record of it ever being sold

There are two different photographs of this work - the one shown above and the one shown without the people in the foreground etc below. They either depict the same painting at different stages, or they record two separate paintings. The backgrounds in the photos match so precisely, we think the first is most likely. Richard's daughters remember the painting with its collaged frame hanging in their home for a long time.

Rouen was severely damaged by Allied bombing, particularly between the quais on the Seine and the medieval cathedral which is the subject of this view. A massive rebuilding programme for this area, master-minded by the architect Louis Arretche, was undertaken in a largely period style. A service to commemorate the completion  of this work seems to have been held in the cathedral in 1956 to which Eurich, it would seem, was invited. Another painting on the same theme (Private Collection) has come to light recently, showing the rebuilding work still in progress.

[Nicholas Usherwood]