PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE FRENCH COLLECTION
Georges Rouault
PIERROT SOLITAIRE
LOT SOLD.
62,500 EUR
Details & Cataloguing
Impressionist and Modern Art
|
Paris
Paris
Georges Rouault
1871 - 1958
PIERROT SOLITAIRE
signed G. Rouault and dated 1904 (lower right)
gouache and pastel on paper laid down on paper
34 x 24,4 cm; 13 3/8 x 9 5/8 in.
Executed in 1904.
Read Condition Report
Read Condition Report
gouache and pastel on paper laid down on paper
34 x 24,4 cm; 13 3/8 x 9 5/8 in.
Executed in 1904.
The Fondation Georges Rouault has kindly confirmed the authenticity of this work.
Provenance
Galerie Bellier, Paris
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1997-98
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1997-98
Literature
Bernard Dorival & Isabelle Rouault, Rouault, L'Œuvre peint, Monaco, 1988, vol. I, no. 136, illustrated p. 56 (incorrectly dated circa 1906)
Catalogue Note
The character of Pierrot from commedia dell'arte holds a central place in Rouault's work. Columbine's lover, Harlequin's rival, is a character from the world of the circus, or even the world of outsiders: street performers, Gypsies, beggars and prostitutes, who first fascinated the Romantic painters, then the Parisian avant-garde. As a Catholic painter, Rouault identified with this character of the half-clown, half-outcast, a symbol of humanity's suffering, who becomes a corollary of the figure of Christ. Painted as early as 1904, Pierrot solitaire marks both the very beginning of the painter's fascination with this subject and the rise of the unique Expressionist style for which he is renowned and which established his work — even when it went against the current — as part of the development of modern painting.
"I saw quite clearly that the "Clown" was me, was us, nearly all of us... this rich and glittering costume, it is given to us by life itself, we are all more or less clowns."
Georges Rouault
"I saw quite clearly that the "Clown" was me, was us, nearly all of us... this rich and glittering costume, it is given to us by life itself, we are all more or less clowns."
Georges Rouault
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