Georges ROUAULT (1871-1958) - Lot 30

Georges ROUAULT (1871-1958) Il arrive parfois que la route soit belle..., circa 1948 Variant after plate 9 of the Miserere. Oil on etching pasted on canvas. Studio stamp on back. 33.5 x 40.5 cm Provenance: Artist's family. By descent. Bibliography: Rouault, l'oeuvre peint, Volume II, Bernard Dorival, Isabelle Rouault, Éditions André Sauret, Monte-Carlo, 1988, reproduced and described under N°1612, page 100. Exhibition: Georges Rouault, paysages, L'Annonciade, Musée de Saint-Tropez, July 4-October 12, 2009, reproduced page 84 and described as N°P.84, page 121 in the catalog. Begun in 1912 following the death of his father, then definitively inspired by the Great War, the Miserere is a suite of 58 engravings. The work, whose first draft title was Miserere et Guerre, goes beyond the events of 14-18 and becomes, in its universality, a vast fresco of the human condition. In it, the artist shows misery, pain, suffering and death as man's eternal companions, but which the believer's gaze overcomes thanks to the strength and light of Hope. Although the 58 plates were completed in 1927 under the watchful eye of art dealer Ambroise Vollard, Georges Rouault had to wait until 1947 to see them published.