‘Léonard Périer, who lived on the quai Fulchiron, was not rich, even though he had reputation and work. For him, art was everything’
High on the hillside called Le Pipet a beautiful dark grey Virgin and Child watch over the ancient town of Vienne in the Valley of the Rhône. Yet today no plaque, no literature, no inventory, no blog, recognise the author of this statue inaugurated on its tower of red bricks in 1858.
The sculptor was Léonard Périer. Périer was born in 1820 in the small village of Saint-Jodard 40 km North West of Lyon in the department of the Loire. Périer studied sculpture at the École des Beaux-arts de Lyon under Léopold de Ruolz, and after his training led a career specialising in religious sculpture. From the late 1850s he was installed in the building at 21 Quai Fulchiron in the Saint-Georges quarter of Lyon, directly overlooking the river Saône. A Forézien by birth, Périer became a Lyonnais by adoption. As his obituary, written by a friend, explains:
Even if he might have been a stranger to us by birth, one can say, nevertheless, that this eminent artist belongs to our école lyonnaise [the Lyon School of Sculpture]. His talent developed in our town, and it is here he produced his principal works. Amongst these, we mention the monumental statue of the Virgin, constructed from Volvic stone, erected on the rocks which dominate the town of Vienne, and situated close to us, can be admired by voyagers or tourists travelling down the Rhône.
Périer’s untimely death in 1866 at the age of only forty-six quickly led to him being forgotten. In 1889 Aimé Vingtrinier could write that he was: Almost forgotten by artists; and unknown to the wider public, even if he had created the colossal statue of the Holy Virgin erected at Vienne on the Hill of the Pipet.
By the twentieth century Périer’s descent into oblivion was complete and his Virgin of Vienne had become an anonymous work. The time has now arrived to restore this beautiful Virgin to the artist who created her.
For an excellent drone video of Périer’s Virgin in Vienne see the YouTube channel of ACTUA DRONE – Thierry EYRAUD https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc5LFAnIbUQ
Jamie Mulherron 