Rouault, Georges | Limited edition artist’s book, Cirque de L’étoile Filante, together with a suite of related lithographs, Cirque

Rouault, Georges

Cirque de L’Étoile Filante. Paris: Ambroise Vollard, 1938

Folio (445 x 340 mm). With wood-engravings after Rouault in the text and the complete suite of 17 color-printed aquatint plates hors-texte; a few instances of faint offsetting opposite wood engravings, five of the plates with light sun-toning resulting from having been framed, otherwise generally a clean copy. Loose sheets in printed paper wrapper, with glassine, as issued; a few small chips and tears in the glassine, the binding uncommonly fresh. Housed in a custom clamshell box, red morocco spine, drab cloth boards, with pasted down marbled paper central panels on covers; spine sun-toned, spots of wear to extremities, the marbled paper pastedowns with a few defects such a chipping along the edges and an adhered strip of paper. (With:) Cirque. [Paris: Ambroise Vollard], 1930. Complete suite of eight color aquatints (sheets measuring 440 x 335 mm), from an edition of 110, on Vergé de Montval paper; light sun-toning around the plates, apparently resulting from having been framed, otherwise fine with full margins. Housed together with the book, laid in the clamshell case.

Limited edition of 250 copies (plus 30 hors commerce), this being example no. 89 of 215 numbered copies on Vergé de Montval paper.

Georges Rouault’s 1938 Cirque de L’Étoile Filante, or “The Shooting Star Circus,” is among the greatest artist’s books of the decade. This copy is accompanied by the artist’s earlier suite of circus prints, Cirque, which had been published by Vollard in 1930.

Rouault’s circus-themed artworks often depict the performers backstage, juxtaposing the brightly colored costumes with their wearers' melancholic expressions. In these prints, he masterfully incorporates both drypoint and aquatint to create a series of colorful and emotive images. The thick black outlines surrounding blocks of color recall stained glass, an art form that Rouault had apprenticed in when he was fourteen.

REFERENCES

Cirque de L’Étoile Filante: Artist & the Book, 271; Chapon/Rouault 240-256 a/b; Manet to Hockney, 103 (incorrect date); Cirque: Chapon/Rouault, 198-205

PROVENANCE

Lessing J. Rosenwald (purchased in 1946) — H. P. Kraus Co. (purchased circa 1963-4) — Irving Zucker Art Books — Donald & Barbara Bady (purchased in 1965; bookplate and a slip with manuscript recitation of provenance laid in)