Rouault, Georges (redirected from Georges Rouault)

Rouault, Georges (zhôrzh r-ō`), 1871–1958, French expressionist artist. First apprenticed to a stained-glass maker, Rouault studied after 1891 under Gustave Moreau. He exhibited several paintings with the fauves (see fauvism) in 1905. His sorrowful and bitter delineations of judges, clowns, and prostitutes caused a great stir in Paris. The suffering of Jesus 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. About 1916, Rouault began more than a decade of work for the publisher Vollard. Using a variety of graphic techniques, he executed a series of about 60 prints called Miserere. He continued to paint the themes he had used earlier, but in a more tranquil style. 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.

Bibliography

See catalog by P. Courthion (1962); studies by G. Marchiori (1967), J. B. Kind (1969), J. Maritain (1969), and W. A. Dyrness (1972).

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Rouault, Georges (-Henri)

(born May 27, 1871, Paris, Fr.—died Feb. 13, 1958, Paris) French painter. His apprenticeship in a glazier's shop restoring medieval stained glass (1885–90) influenced his mature style as a painter. After an early academic period, his style evolved toward Fauvism before he established a highly personal form of Expressionism. An ardent Roman Catholic, he painted subjects apparently fallen from grace—prostitutes, tragic clowns, and pitiless judges. After 1914 his subject matter became more specifically religious, with greater emphasis on redemption, and he shifted from watercolour to oil. His layers of paint became thick and rich, his forms simplified, and his colours and black lines reminiscent of stained glass. In the 1930s he produced a splendid series on Christ's Passion, while reworking many earlier paintings. His series of clowns in the 1940s are virtual self-portraits. He also produced many engravings as well as ceramics, tapestry designs, and stained glass.