Georges Henri Rouault p Artist: Georges Henri RouaultTechnique: oil on boardMeasure: 54 x 42 cmSigned: lower left edgeBiography:(Paris, 1871 - 1958) French painter endowed with a personal style close to expressionism.Georges Rouault studied painting at the École des Beaux-Art (1892-1898) and was a fellow student of Henri Matisse and Albert Marquet. He was Gustave Moreau's favorite disciple, and on the master's death in 1898 he became the first curator of the Moreau Museum in Paris, a position he held until his own death.His early religious paintings reflect both the imitation of jewelry by Moreau's painting and his own fondness for medieval art. His great religiosity was fueled by his contacts with Huysman and with León Bloy, whose passionate novels about the sordid life of Paris led to the Prostitutes series (1903-1907), in which the painting Before the Mirror (1906) stands out. This series, although close in theme and technique to the work of Toulouse-Lautrec, has been linked to the style of the group of Fauve artists formed around Matisse, who in 1903 exhibited together with Rouault at the Salon d'Autome.However, despite his friendship with Matisse, Georges Rouault did not adopt his cheerful themes and bright colors, but painted clowns, outcasts and judges in dark but intense tones. These paintings express their hatred of cruelty, hypocrisy and vice. They showed with passionate conviction the ugliness and depravity of mankind and were regarded as moral lessons on sin and redemption. At first they disturbed the public, but from the 1930s their author achieved an international reputation.After 1940, Rouault devoted himself almost exclusively to religious art with expressionist overtones. Prolific painter, his work includes the etchings Guerra and Miserere (1917-1927), numerous illustrations for books, ceramics, tapestry and stained glass designs (such as the windows of the church of Assy, 1948), and decorations (The Prodigal Son, 1929 ) for the ballet of the famous Russian businessman Sergei Diaghilev, for which important avant-garde artists such as Braque and Picasso also worked.

This is in good condition with age appropirate wear.