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Georges Rouault
Chinois inventa, dit-on, la poudre a canon, nous en fit don

1926

$1,750
£1,322.78
€1,520.11
CA$2,436.86
A$2,710.91
CHF 1,421.09
MX$33,126.68
NOK 18,095.86
SEK 17,034.75
DKK 11,347.07
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About the Item

Chinois inventa, dit-on, la poudre a canon, nous en fit don (The Chinese invented gunpowder, they say, and made is a gift of it) Aquatint, roulette, drypoint, acid bite, and scorper, 1926 From: Miserere, Plate 38 Initially started by Ambrose Vollard, this portfolio was published in 1948 by Editions de l'Etoile Filante, Paris This image is the cover illustration for the 1938 MOMA catalog, The Prints of Georges Rouault (print out in Artist File) Provenance: Stanley Yulish, Cleveland Rouault’s Miserere (Mercy) series, first titled Miserere et Guerre (Mercy and War), was commissioned in 1916 by art dealer Ambroise Vollard (1865–1939). Originally planned as a two-volume book comprised of 50 prints each, Miserere was only partially realized — with 58 prints published in 1948. The series illustrates man’s cruelty to man, relates human suffering to the passion of Christ, and speaks to the redemption and salvation that can be achieved through that experience.” Haggerty Museum of Art ‘Rouault began his Miserere series during the somber days of World War I and had finished it by 1927. He first drew the images in India ink and later reproduced them as engravings, reworking the plates over the years—scraping deeper with a file or sanding with emery paper. He later wrote of this time: “When I was about thirty, I felt a stroke of lightning, or of grace, depending on one’s perspective. The face of the world changed for me. I saw everything that I had seen before, but in a different form and with a different harmony.” “Rouault was born into a poor family in the Belleville neighborhood of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War at the end of the 19th century, and he lived and worked in the city through both the first and second world wars. Apprenticed at age 14 to a stained-glass restorer working on Saint-Severin Church in Paris, Rouault attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts alongside Matisse. His mentor there was the Symbolist Gustave Moreau, and the influence of this early master of intuitive self-examination and personal mythmaking never left him. Encouraged by Moreau to look inward at the same time that his day-to-day life was saturated with the suffering of poverty and war, Rouault drew early and often on the subjects he had learned about while working on the stained glass in Parisian cathedrals, especially the Stations of the Cross.” Westmont College “The series (Miserere) is concerned with three types of humanity: the bourgeoisie, who are depicted as vicious and deluded; the poor and outcast, who are seen as ennobled by suffering; and Jesus Christ, who is the archetype and the analogue of both the artist and his beloved outsiders.” Westmont College “The artist has contrived a method that allows black-and-white prints to glow with the inner light of stained glass and ripple with the atmospheric brushstrokes and washes of painting. The style is deliberately simple, but the rigorous logic of its conception and the infinitely patient authority of its execution result in something deep and powerful.” Westmont College
  • Creator:
    Georges Rouault (1871-1958, French)
  • Creation Year:
    1926
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 25.5 in (64.77 cm)Width: 19.75 in (50.17 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
    Very rich impression in the original presentation folder.
  • Gallery Location:
    Fairlawn, OH
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: FA93881stDibs: LU14016449982

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En bouche qui fut fraîche, goût de fiel (In the mouth that was once fresh, ...
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En bouche qui fut fraîche, goût de fiel (In the mouth that was once fresh, the taste of bitterness) Aquatint, drypoint, roulette and burnishing over heliogravure, 1922 Unsigned as ...
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Ne sommes-nous pas forçats? (Are we not Slaves?)
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Located in Fairlawn, OH
Ne sommes-nous pas forçats? (Are we not Slaves?) Aquatint and heliogravure on Arches laid paper watermarked "Ambroise Vollard" Signed and dated in the plate lower left (see photo) P...
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1920s French School Figurative Prints

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Qui ne se grime pas? (Who does not wear a mask?)
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Located in Fairlawn, OH
Qui ne se grime pas? (Who does not wear a mask?) Aquatint, roulette, drypoint, acid bite, and scorper, 1923 Signed in the plate loweer left (see photo) Dated in pencil Series: Miser...
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Loin du sourire de Reims (Far from the Smile of Rheims) Aquatint, drypoint, roulette and burnishing over heliogravure, 1922 Signed with the initials in the plate and dated (see photo...
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