Georges Rouault

In the 1890s Georges Rouault studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, with Gustave Moreau. Decisively influenced by his teacher as well as the writers Joris-Karl Huysmans and Léon Bloy, his artistic persona was formed in the Symbolist and mystical-religious intellectual atmosphere of the fin de siècle. In 1903 Rouault was among the founders of the Salon d’Automne, where he exhibited regularly in the years that followed; the gallerist Ambroise Vollard would later become the most important dealer of his art. The works of this period are characterised by their expressive idiom and an aggressive tonality, which – from an aesthetic perspective – is closely related to Fauvism. In his depictions of prostitutes, clowns and judges, Rouault paints an image of the humanistic decay of his epoch. The creation of his extensive body of prints began in the second decade of the 20th century: these include illustrations for Charles Baudelaire’s “Les Fleurs du Mal” and the extraordinary social criticism of the cycle “Miserere”. In the course of his oeuvre, Rouault increasingly turned to religious, Old Testament themes. His stylistically characteristic contrast of luminous and, later, more reserved areas of colour surrounded by broad black contours recalls medieval church windows in terms of its aesthetic, and it points to the artist’s own early work on stained-glass windows. Designs for ceramics and church windows as well as designs for the sets and costumes of Serge Diaghilev’s “Ballets Russes” supplement his main oeuvre. With his spiritual content and unmistakable pictorial idiom, Rouault succeeded in securing an individual status for himself within the modern art of the first half of the 20th century.