Lot 28
  • 28

GEORGES ROUAULT | Deux prostituées & Fille (A Double-Sided Work)

Estimate
200,000 - 300,000 USD
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Description

  • Georges Rouault
  • Deux prostituées & Fille (A Double-Sided Work)
  • Signed G. Rouault and dated 1906 (upper right)
  • Watercolor on paper
  • 26 3/8 by 22 3/8 in.
  • 67 by 56.8 cm
  • Executed in 1906.

Provenance

Van Leer, Paris

The Drs. Bakwin, New York (acquired from the above in 1928)

Thence by descent

Exhibited

New York, Brummer Gallery, Rouault, 1930, no. 37

Chicago, Arts Club of Chicago, Georges Rouault, 1931, no. 10

New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Summer Exhibition: Painting and Sculpture, 1933

Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, International Watercolor Exhibition, 1934, no. 34

New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Modern Works of Art: Fifth Anniversary Exhibition, 1934-35, no. 136

Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts, Georges Rouault: Paintings, Lithographs, 1935, no. 21

New York, Pierre Matisse Gallery, Georges Rouault, 1937, no. 26

Boston, Institute of Modern Art; Washington, D.C., Phillips Memorial Gallery & San Francisco, San Francisco Museum of Art, Georges Rouault: Retrospective Loan Exhibition, 1940-41, no. 45

New York, Marie Harriman Gallery, Georges Rouault, 1941, no. 20

Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, The 21st International Exhibition of Watercolors, 1942, no. 21

Chicago, The Renaissance Society, Paintings and Prints by George Rouault, 1945, no. 3

New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Georges Rouault, 1945, no. 13, illustrated in the catalogue 

New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Paintings from Private Collections, 1946

New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Paintings from Private Collections, 1955

New York, Gallery G, 1955

Paris, Musée de l’Orangerie, De Clouet à Matisse, 1955-56, no. 224, illustrated in the catalogue 

New York, Wildenstein & Co., The Dr. and Mrs. Harry Bakwin Collection, 1967, no. 33, illustrated in the catalogue 

Lugano, Museo d’Arte Moderna della Città di Lugano, Georges Rouault, 1997, no. 15

New York, Mitchell-Innes & Nash, Georges Rouault: Judges, Clowns and Whores, 2007, no. 4, illustrated in the catalogue

Literature

Georges Charensol, Georges Rouault: L'Homme et l’oeuvre, Paris, 1926, illustrated pl. 7

Isabelle Rouault & Bernard Dorival, Georges Rouault, Catalogue de l'oeuvre peint, vol. I, Monaco, 1988, no. 171, illustrated p. 63

Gregory Selch, ed., The Bakwin Collection, Paintings and Sculpture, 1925-1970, Collected by Drs. Ruth & Harry Bakwin, New York, 2004, illustrated in color n.p. 

Catalogue Note

Executed in 1906, Deux prostituées & Fille belongs to a group of works in which Rouault depicted prostitutes, circus performers, lawyers and other fringe members of society (see fig. 1). Unlike Picasso and Toulouse-Lautrec, who portrayed these individuals with pathos, Rouault's approach was much more unapologetic and raw. Although Rouault was not a formal member of the Fauve movement, he did embrace its primary tenet of incorporating of an exaggerated palette. The present work, painted in vivid hues of red, purple and blue, is a colorful example of Rouault's preoccupation with depicting prostitutes. The sitters, whose figures are delineated by confident undulating lines, are shown in a stark, candid and unvarnished moment, underscoring the harsh realities of the world's oldest profession. Lionello Venturi writes, "Let us turn to the Prostitutes.... Effects of light and shade are here projected into the foreground, so as to emphasize the vehement handling of the nude bodies and to lessen their plastic density. There is no attenuation of his satirical aggressiveness, but the happy complexity of Rouault's style transforms it into pure art. Rouault had still another means of transcending the satirical, and that was to represent the female nude without castigating it, to represent it feelingly in all its natural beauty" (L. Venturi, Rouault, Paris, 1959, p. 56).

Notable resonance in subject matter, if not tone, can be found in the work of Otto Dix (see fig. 2), a German painter who is best known for his politically-charged observations of the Weimar Republic. Conjuring a sense of empty decadence, Dix’s grotesque and exaggerated figures from this time impart a deep sense of irony and social critique, and like Rouault's output say more about society as a whole than the individuals being represented. As Dix grew gradually more disenchanted with the world around him, Rouault grew increasingly more spiritual, turning to his faith for guidance in the trying inter-war period. By 1920, Rouault's work became dominated by religious iconography, leaving the courtesans and magistrates of his past behind.