Georges ROUAULT (1871-1958)

Passion, circa 1938 Oil on parquet panel. Unsigned 40 x 27 cm (Cracks) Certificate of Isabelle Rouault, dated March 11, 1969. Will be included in volume 3 of the catalogue raisonné of the artist in preparation. Provenance : Galerie Yoshi, 8 avenue de Matignon, Paris Private collection G.D, acquired on September 10, 2004 from the previous owner. Exhibition : - Shizuoka Art Gallery, Japan, "The Georges Rouault Exhibition", 21/05/1997 to 29/06/1997 - Galerie Schmit, 396 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, Paris, "Georges Rouault Exhibition", 14/04 to 04/07/2008 Rouault's work is transcended by his Christian faith. In 1939, the merchant Ambroise Vollard published "Passion", an art book accompanied by moving lithographs by Rouault on a text by André Suarès and which is considered one of the masterpieces of the history of illustrated books. The theme of the Passion is a transposition into the sacred realm of his youthful works on secular subjects ("The Accused and the Judges", 1905/1912), emblematic of tragic destiny and human suffering. During the 1930s, Rouault painted many Passion Christs. Sometimes, as here, Rouault creates his own frame for his painting, made of thick paint in multiple compact and superimposed layers. The image of the martyred Christ appears to be trapped within it. However, in our painting the painter juxtaposes this suffering flesh with the oval of a window lit by a bluish dawn light which evokes a possible hope. At the end of the 1930s, a new serenity appears in Rouault's painting which makes him say "I have spent my life painting twilights, I should have the right now to paint the dawn".