Buste de Femme. St. Nitoche by Georges Rouault, 1871-1958

Georges Rouault, 1871-1958
Scroll down for information.
Click here to return to the list.

Buste de Femme. St. Nitoche

Original etching with drypoint and aquatint over heliogravure in black ink. 1928. Signed with initials in the plate only. Proof for the separate edition of 225 impressions (of this edition a certain number were signed by Rouault in ink - the exact number is not known). Etched
1928 for the series: Réincarnations du Père Ubu. Issued by Vollard, Paris 1932.
Ref: I. Rouault no 26 b

Extremely rich impression with more ink tone than in the regular edition. On pale cream laid hollande paper. Generally excellent condition, very slightest traces of time soiling. Full margins. Sheet: 17 3/8 x 12 1/2 ins. Plate: 9 7/8 x 6 1/2 ins (250x163mm)

This item is sold.
Click here to enquire about this item.

Rouault?s etchings for the Père Ubu series are amongst his earliest important compositions in prints. They were etched in the late 1920?s but were not issued for Rouault by Vollard until some years later. The these were all inspired by a strange moralist and symbolic text written by Alfred Jarry. Whilst nominally taking ideas and themes from Jarry Rouault in fact created a series of compositions which illustrated his own views about the social and moral degeneration of French attitudes in the years between the wars.

Rouault was essentially a religious artist, that is to say that whilst by no means all his subjects are actual religious themes they are in essence about religious ideas. Rouault believed that the role and character of womanhood was being forced into degeneration by the moral and social attitudes of the times. The perfect expression of womanhood was in the symbol of the Madonna. The figure in this composition is ?woman as a prostitute? but ironically given the title of a Saint. The handling, with bold broad line and complex textures is characteristic of the power of his use of etching as a medium.