Background Image

Georges Rouault

"Within the veritable artpiece lies a passionate confession."

Pic

Notes of biography

Georges Rouault was born in Paris in 1871. Son of workman, he spent his childhood in the old popular districts of Belleville. Very young, he worked as apprentice in a master-glassworker. His maternal grandfather assisted him to develop little by little his passion for the painting. He followed, from 1885, evening classes at the School of the Decorative arts, then studied, between 1890 and 1895, at the Art college; there, Rouault was a part of Gustave Moreau's atelier, exceptional teacher who urged his pupils to show their talent.
He became, in 1903, curator of the atelier-museum that Moreau bequeathed to the State. The same year he was a co-founder of the Autumn Salon (with Franz Jourdain, Valloton, Vuillard, etc.) where he exhibited henceforth regularly. In this Salon under the window of Grand Palais in 1905, Rouault was a part of the famous "cage aux fauves", like Matisse, Derain, Vlaminck, Marquet, Van Dongen, Camoin, Manguin, etc...
The first personal exhibition of Georges Rouault was organized in 1910. The artist attempted to find "a writing in painting". He liked showing people living in the popular districts and suburbs of Paris. Gouaches, watercolours, his colours were intense, in dominant-blue. His works displayed a tragic vision of reality. In 1912, Rouault began a pad of Indian-ink-drawings, and the Miserere etchings; for which, during more than ten years, he corrected brass instruments.
At the end of the first world war, Rouault practiced oil painting, with his subjects of preferences, which subjects he painted with dark colours ringed in thick black. His Christian faith apperared in number of his canvases, not stopping any more henceforth resuming the catholic iconography. He created stained glasses for the Assy’s church Notre-Dame du Plateau in 1945 (Haute-Savoie), enamels for the abbey of Ligugé in 1949 (Vienne).
Rouault was Matisse’s friend, as well as writers one like Léon Bloy he met in 1904, Huysmans or André Suarès.
Georges Rouault, in 1948, burnt three hundred and fifteen of his works, following the lawsuit with Ambroise Vollard’s heirs, his trader; lawsuit which recognized him a moral right on his unfinished works. Georges Rouault created decorations for the Russian ballets of Diaghilev (1929), practised the ceramic-etching-and- book art. The etching occupied a determining place in his work but also in his pictorial development. All his life, Rouault followed Gustave Moreau’s advice, his boss: listen to his own internal voice.
Georges Rouault, engaged man, man with burning confessions, died in 1958 in Paris.

Artists on display

The art and the artists display: proclamations, galleries, museums, personal or collective exhibitions. On walls or in shop windows, wise or rebels, posters warn, argue, show. Some were specially conceived by an artist for such or such event, other, colder, have only the letter.

Some were created in lithographic technic, most are simple offset reproductions. They are many those who like collecting these rectangles of paper, monochrome or in games of colours, in matt paper or brilliant, with many words or almost dumb.

We are happy also to be able to greet, by this pages, mythical galleries as those of Denise René, Louis Carré, Claude Bernard, Berheim Jeune, Maeght, Pierre Loeb and others.

Pic

Complete work(s)

Complete work(s)
*« Leben und Werk », Pierre Courthion, Verlag Du Mont Schauberg, Cologne - Paris, 1962 All the complete works

Bibliographic track and more

To read about the artist :
  • « G. R.: Leben und Werk », P. Courthion, Du Mont Schaubert, Cologne, 1962
  • « Hommage à Georges Rouault », XXème siècle, Paris, 1971
  • « Rouault », cat. exposition, MAM Ville de Paris, 1983
  • « Rouault », Fabrice Hergott, Ed. Albin Michel, 1991
  • « Rouault », cat. exposition, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1992
  • « Rouault », François Chapon, Ed. Trinckvel, 1992
  • « Georges Rouault, mon père », G. Nouaille-Rouault, Ed. Le Léopard d'or, 1998
  • « Passion », G. Rouault, André Suarès, Ed. Cerf, coll. Images, 2005
  • « Georges Rouault », M. Restellini, D. Molinari, Ed. Pinacotèque de Paris, 2008
  • « 100 crimes contre l'art », Karin Müller, Ed. de L'Écailler, 2012
To read from the artist :
  • « Souvenirs intimes », Frappier, Paris, 1926
  • « Lettre de G. Rouault à G. Moreau », Musée Gustave Moreau, Paris,1896
Website :
www.rouault.org

More :


Art movements

+ EXPRESSIONISM / 1900-1932 / Cuno Amiet, Auguste Chabaud, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Otto Mueller, Emil Nolde, Egon Schiele, Chaïm Soutine, etc.
+ FAUVISM / 1902-1907 / Charles Camoin, Auguste Chabaud, etc.
All art movements

See & discover

Beyond works currently in stock, it seemed to me useful to combine business with pleasure by letting you discover others works by artists in my gallery. These artworks, now sold or removed from our website, have been in our stock in the past.

These pages will undoubtedly make it possible for some of you to associate an image with its title or the other way round, for others it will be a good time to discover more on such and such artist. For the sake of confidentiality – the pieces being no longer available – we won't display neither their numbering or their price. For whatever reason, make sure to visit this amazing art database with to date 6441 online works just for your pleasure! Michelle Champetier

See & discover