| Georges Rouault was born during a bombardment of his Quarter at the time of the Paris Commune of 1871; an appropriate beginning for one of the most powerful artists of the century. Rouault was preoccupied throughout his life with man's inhumanity to fellow man. However, his art does not pass judgment on the human condition; rather it offers hope for a new beginning.
A French expressionist artist, Rouault first apprenticed to a stained-glass maker. More than any other 20th century artist, one associates Rouault with the extremes of human emotions and actions. He portrayed absolutes: the outcast and the saint, the sufferer and the redeemer. Yet these extremes merge into one.
After 1891 Rouault studied under Gustave Moreau. He exhibited several paintings with the Fauves in 1905. His sorrowful and bitter delineations of judges, clowns, and prostitutes caused a great stir in Paris. The suffering of Christ was his frequent subject. His thickly encrusted, powerfully colored images, outlined heavily in black, have the effect of icons and a pattern suggestive of stained glass.
Rouault's search for absolute values has its counterpart in his highly individual graphic techniques. Around 1916, Rouault began more than a decade of work for the publisher Vollard. Using a variety of graphic processes, he executed a series of about 60 prints called Miserere. The metaphysical quality of his monchrome lithographs and the magnificent blacks of his monochrome intaglios were achieved through highly unorthodox techniques. For his color aquatints, Rouault employed the sugar-lift process to realize colors which are at once, rich, subtle and luminous.
He continued to paint the themes he had used earlier, but in a more tranquil style. Rouault's works are unequaled in the religious art of our time. Examples of his art can be found in many European and American collections. The Museum of Modern Art, New York City, owns his Three Judges and Christ Mocked by Soldiers. Georges Rouault died in 1958 at age 87. During his long career he was able to translate a profound moral vision into an equally intense aesthetic experience.
Georges Rouault : The MiserereSeries
Georges Rouault (1871-1958) was born in a working-class suburb of Paris. Encouraged by his grandfather, he began drawing as a child and was apprenticed to a stained-glass maker at the age of fourteen. In his spare time, he practiced his technique at the École Nationale des Arts Décoratifs, and frequented the Louvre. At age twenty, Rouault began studying at the École des Beaux-Arts under Gustave Moreau (1826-98) who also taught Henri Matisse and Albert Marquet. Shortly after Moreau died and bequeathed his estate to the City of Paris, Rouault was made the curator of the new Musée Gustave Moreau.
In 1902 Rouault helped to found the Salon d'Automne where he exhibited his work along with the Fauves and Indépendants, two groups of artists not included in the official Salon of the French Royal Academy. Rouault was thirty-eight when he had his first solo exhibition in Paris. Rouault received major recognition for his work in 1937, when his paintings were displayed in conjunction with the Paris World's Fair.
Rouault, a devout Catholic, painted images of Christ, along with prostitutes, lawyers, judges and clowns as part of a commentary on the corruption of society. He believed in the teaching of the Gospel and stated that his "only ambition is to be able to paint a Christ so moving that those who see Him will be converted."
The art dealer Ambroise Vollard (1865-1939) commissioned Rouault to produce prints for a two volume edition. For this project, entitled Miserere et Guerre, Rouault was to create a hundred images which would appear with text by the poet André Suarès. Rouault started the series in 1914 and continued working on it through World War I and again from 1922 until 1927. Vollard became Rouault's sole agent and employer after 1916. Vollard and his family retained control of the images until 1948, at which time Rouault prevailed in court and then published his collection of prints as a single volume entitled Miserere.
To create this series, the artist had his preliminary drawings photographically transferred onto copper plates using a process known as heliogravure. Rouault then reworked each plate using a variety of intaglio printmaking techniques. The term intaglio means "to cut in" and refers to aquatint, drypoint, and etching processes. Each of these techniques used by Rouault involves incising or engraving a metal plate either chemically or with a drypoint instrument such as an etching needle or burrin. Both aquatinting and etching require use of an acid-resistant material called a ground and an acid bath which pits the surface. In some instances Rouault made as many as fifteen successive impressions or states of a specific image before being satisfied.
Many of the themes found in Rouault's paintings are repeated in the Miserereseries. In the first part of the series, the sufferings of Christ are interwoven with those of Man. By contrast, the second part of the series entitled Guerreincludes more images of death, but ends with the idea of resurrection and Man's salvation through the sacrifice of Christ. Rouault revealed for many the relevance of Christianity during what has been called the "post-Christian" era.
Georges Rouault : The MiserereSeries
Georges Rouault (1871-1958) was born in a working-class suburb of Paris. Encouraged by his grandfather, he began drawing as a child and was apprenticed to a stained-glass maker at the age of fourteen. In his spare time, he practiced his technique at the École Nationale des Arts Décoratifs, and frequented the Louvre. At age twenty, Rouault began studying at the École des Beaux-Arts under Gustave Moreau (1826-98) who also taught Henri Matisse and Albert Marquet. Shortly after Moreau died and bequeathed his estate to the City of Paris, Rouault was made the curator of the new Musée Gustave Moreau.
In 1902 Rouault helped to found the Salon d'Automne where he exhibited his work along with the Fauves and Indépendants, two groups of artists not included in the official Salon of the French Royal Academy. Rouault was thirty-eight when he had his first solo exhibition in Paris. Rouault received major recognition for his work in 1937, when his paintings were displayed in conjunction with the Paris World's Fair.
Rouault, a devout Catholic, painted images of Christ, along with prostitutes, lawyers, judges and clowns as part of a commentary on the corruption of society. He believed in the teaching of the Gospel and stated that his "only ambition is to be able to paint a Christ so moving that those who see Him will be converted."
The art dealer Ambroise Vollard (1865-1939) commissioned Rouault to produce prints for a two volume edition. For this project, entitled Miserere et Guerre, Rouault was to create a hundred images which would appear with text by the poet André Suarès. Rouault started the series in 1914 and continued working on it through World War I and again from 1922 until 1927. Vollard became Rouault's sole agent and employer after 1916. Vollard and his family retained control of the images until 1948, at which time Rouault prevailed in court and then published his collection of prints as a single volume entitled Miserere.
To create this series, the artist had his preliminary drawings photographically transferred onto copper plates using a process known as heliogravure. Rouault then reworked each plate using a variety of intaglio printmaking techniques. The term intaglio means "to cut in" and refers to aquatint, drypoint, and etching processes. Each of these techniques used by Rouault involves incising or engraving a metal plate either chemically or with a drypoint instrument such as an etching needle or burrin. Both aquatinting and etching require use of an acid-resistant material called a ground and an acid bath which pits the surface. In some instances Rouault made as many as fifteen successive impressions or states of a specific image before being satisfied.
Many of the themes found in Rouault's paintings are repeated in the Miserereseries. In the first part of the series, the sufferings of Christ are interwoven with those of Man. By contrast, the second part of the series entitled Guerreincludes more images of death, but ends with the idea of resurrection and Man's salvation through the sacrifice of Christ. Rouault revealed for many the relevance of Christianity during what has been called the "post-Christian" era. |
