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96 - GEORGES ROUAULT (1871-1958) Self-portrait (sketch), 1920-192…
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Estimate €80,000 - €120,000
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GEORGES ROUAULT (1871-1958) Self-portrait (sketch), 1920-1921 Oil diluted with petrol on paper mounted on canvas Unsigned Stamped 'Atelier de/Georges Rouault' [not Lugt] and annotated 'Isabelle Rouault' on the back 48 x 31 cm - 18 7/8 x 12 1/4 in. Oil on paper laid on canvas, unsigned, stamped with the 'Atelier de/Georges Rouault' mark and inscribed 'Isabelle Rouault' on the reverse Provenance : Artist's family, France Bibliography : Christine Gouzi and Anne-Marie Agulhon [with the collaboration of], Georges Rouault, Soliloques d'un peintre, Écrits, 1896-1958, Strasbourg: L'Atelier contemporain, François-Marie Deyrolle éditeur, 2022, reproduced on cover Bernard Dorival [text by] and Isabelle Rouault [catalogue compiled by], Rouault, L'œuvre peint, Tome II, Monaco: André Sauret, 1988, described and reproduced under reference 2538, p. 294 Exhibition(s) : Self-Portraits, Paris, Galerie Skarstedt, 13 February-29 March 2025, no. unknown Painters of Passion, Adventures in Color by Kandinsky, Rouault, and Their Contemporaries, Tokyo, Panasonic Shiodome Museum of Art, 17 October-20 December 2017, no. 76 Georges Rouault and the Expressionists, Painters of Passion, Miyagi, The Miyagi Museum of Art, 12 August-9 October 2017, no. unknown Alexej von Jawlensky/Georges Rouault. Sehen mit Geschlossenen Augen, Halle (Saale), Kunstmuseum Moritzburg, 19 March-25 June 2017, cat. 57 Georges Rouault, Lyon, Musée d'art religieux de Fourvière, 2 October 2013-5 January 2014, no. unknown Georges Rouault. Cirque forain, Tokyo, Panasonic Shiodome Museum-Rouault, 6 October-16 December 2012, n°18 Georges Rouault, Zaragoza, Ibercaja, Patio de la Infanta, 13 January-20 April 2011, no. unknown Georges Rouault, Geneva, Interart Galerie, 30 April-2 July 2010, unknown Georges Rouault. Paysages, Troyes, Musée d'art moderne de Troyes, 7 November 2009-7 February 2010, no. unknown Georges Rouault. Paysages, Saint-Tropez, L'Annonciade, Musée de Saint-Tropez, 4 July-12 October 2009, no. unknown Mystic Masque. Semblance and Reality in Georges Rouault, Boston, McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, 30 August-7 December 2008, cat. no. 21 Georges Rouault, Paris ; Tokyo ; Osaka, Galerie Taménaga, 15 November 2007-18 May 2008, n°18 Georges Rouault. Form, colour, harmony, Strasbourg, Musée d'Art moderne et contemporain de Strasbourg, 10 November 2006-18 March 2007, cat. no. 39 Henri Matisse / Georges Rouault, Correspondances 1906-1953, Paris, Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris, 27 October 2006-17 February 2007, cat. no. unknown Rouault. The painter who kept his spiritual liberty, Daejeon, Museum of Art, 4 May-27 August 2006, no. unknown Georges Rouault et le cirque, Chambéry, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Chambéry, 26 November 2004-28 February 2005, n°1 Rouault. Première Période 1903-1920, Paris, Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, 27 February-4 May 1992, no. unknown Georges Rouault, München, Haus der Kunst; Manchester, City Art Galleries, 23 March-28 July 1974, no. 54 Rouault, London, The Tate Gallery, 8 October-13 November 1966, n°53 Edinburgh International Festival 1966. Rouault, Edinburgh, The Royal Scottish Academy, 20 August-18 September 1966, n°53 Georges Rouault, Frankfurt, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Adolf und Luisa Haeuser-Stiftung, 12 February-27 March 1966, n°54 Georges Rouault, Colmar, Musée Unterlinden, July-September 1965, cat. 29 Rouault, Quebec, Musée du Québec; Montreal, Musée d'Art Contemporain de Montréal, 28 January-2 May 1965, cat. 30 Georges Rouault, Dieppe, Musée de Dieppe, 22 May-16 September 1963, cat. no. 25 Georges Rouault, Basel, Galerie Beyeler, January-June 1962, cat. no. 1 Hommage à Rouault, Ghent, Museum of Fine Arts, 23 September-5 November 1961, cat. no. 16 Georges Rouault, Paris, Galerie Creuzevault, 3 June-15 July 1960, no. unknown Related work(s) : Georges Rouault (1871-1958), The apprentice worker, 1925, oil on paper mounted on canvas, unsigned, 67 x 54 cm, Paris, Musée national d'art moderne, AM 3170 P Commentary: Self-portraits occupy a singular place in the work of Georges Rouault. Concentrated mainly around the years 1895-1901, and then repeated from time to time in the following decades, they are less an exercise in observation than a veritable field of inner experimentation. These works form a coherent whole within the artist's early years, already revealing the expressive tension that would run through his entire oeuvre. Rouault never sought a faithful likeness or the mundane affirmation of the painter in front of himself. On the contrary, his self-portraits appear as meditative figures, sometimes severe, often shot through with anxiety. The features are simplified, the gazes intensely fixed, the faces framed by dark outlines that already herald the aesthetics of the judges, clowns and sacred figures of the mature period. This introspective dimension brings several of his self-portraits closer to his representations of clowns or acrobats, to the point where certain works - such as Tête de clown (Autoportrait?) in the Pushkin Museum - deliberately maintain an ambiguity between character and self-image. For Rouault, the self-portrait thus becomes less the representation of an individual than a reflection on the human condition, solitude and inner fragility. Even in the late revivals of the 1920s-1930s, executed from earlier drawings, the artist retained this spiritual intensity and this silent face-to-face encounter with himself. The self-portraits thus appear to be a discreet but essential thread in Rouault's work, in which the great moral and existential themes that were to mark all his painting were forged very early on. In Our Self-Portrait and The Worker's Apprentice (AM 3170 P), now in the Centre Pompidou, separated by a few years, Georges Rouault presents two profoundly different visions of himself, while retaining the same introspective intensity that runs through all his work. The Self-portrait (sketch) from the 1920s still uses a fluid, vibrant material: the face emerges from the shadows in broad, diluted, almost expressionist brushstrokes, in an unstable light that seems to convey the urgency of the inner gaze. In contrast, the self-portrait at Beaubourg imposes a hieratic, meditative front. The modelling hardens, the contours assert themselves, and the famous white cap - almost a halo - transforms the artist into a figure that is both humble and sacred. Where the sketch still reveals the painter's psychological fragility, The Worker's Apprentice affirms a true profession of artistic and social faith: Rouault portrays himself not as a master, but as a craftsman, faithful to his popular origins and to his spiritual conception of painting. This tension between suffering humanity and inner monumentality makes these two works a rare and particularly moving dialogue in Rouault's body of self-portraits. *** "Pale complexion, clear eyes always alert, but with an inner gaze rather than one fixed on the object, violent mouth, bulging forehead, vast skull once adorned with abundant blond hair (and not regretting it) ; There is something of a lunar clown, - a surprising mixture of pity and bitterness, of malice and candour, - in the physiognomy of this painter who is an enemy of coteries and conventions, and generally of all contemporary mores, and whom fame is in the process of pulling out of his cellar, for he was born in a cellar, in 1871, during the bombardment of Paris. " Jacques Maritain, 1924
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About the sale Impressionist and modern art
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Auction time 06/17/2026 at 2:30 PM
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