Georges Rouault

Ambroise Vollard, Paris
Private Collection, Europe 

Paris, Galerie Charpentier, Chefs d'œuvres de collections françaises, 1962, no. 79

Pierre Courthion, Georges Rouault, Paris, 1962, no. 347, illustrated p. 437
Bernard Dorival & Isabelle Rouault, Rouault, L'œuvre peint, Monte-Carlo, 1988, vol. II, no. 1809, illustrated p. 141

PLEASE REFER TO DEPARTMENT Colours: Overall brighter, more contrasting and more attractive in the original.
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Throughout his career, Rouault often treated the subject of judges and tribunals in his paintings, continuing a strong tradition of questioning the judicial system, an iconic example being the caricatures of Honoré Daumier at the end of the 19th century. Formally, Rouault was drawn to their costume: "The black cap and red robes create a nice spot of colour" (Rouault cited in Rouault, l'oeuvre peint by Bernard Dorival and Isabelle Rouault, Editions André Sauret, 1988, p. 113). On a more spiritual level, Rouault was bothered by the idea that one man could have the power to judge another. "Do not judge others, Jesus had said, adding on another occasion, let he among you who is without sin cast the first stone. What, in this light, is to be said of these men - as sinful as anyone else - whose profession it is to sit in judgement on their fellows, and who are paid for the sentences they mete out? If I have depicted these judges with such appalling faces, it is probably because I betray some of the anguish I felt before the spectacle of a human being sitting in judgement over his fellow-men" (cited in Rouault, l'oeuvre peint by Bernard Dorival and Isabelle Rouault, Editions André Sauret, 1988, p. 113).

If Rouault's early depictions of judges and tribunals were filled with more demonic depictions of these men, this violence was gradually replaced by a sense of irony, even of the ridiculous. This work, with its bold composition and expressionist brushstrokes, was one of the last court scenes painted by the artist, the judges are depicted as bulbous, passive, and uneducated figures, a less pointed but equally powerful commentary on the place of judgement in contemporary society.