Georges Rouault valuation

Georges Rouault (1871–1958) was born in Paris and grew up in Belleville. At about fourteen he was apprenticed to a stained glass maker, and the heavy black outlines and glowing colour of his mature painting are often likened to leaded glass. He entered the École des Beaux-Arts in 1890 and became a pupil of Gustave Moreau, alongside Henri Matisse and Albert Marquet. In 1902 he was appointed curator of Moreau's former house, which opened as a museum the following year, and he held the post until 1932. A founding member of the Salon d'Automne, he showed there in 1905, the year the Fauves were named, and he first exhibited at the Galerie Druet in 1910. From 1907 he painted clowns, prostitutes and courtroom scenes, and he later turned mainly to religious subjects, above all the Passion of Christ. The dealer Ambroise Vollard commissioned much of his printmaking, including illustrations for Réincarnations du Père Ubu, Cirque de l'Étoile filante and Passion, and the Miserere, 58 plates in aquatint, etching and engraving, was published in 1948.

Besides paintings and works on paper, Rouault made a large body of prints, many of them plates for illustrated books such as Miserere and Cirque de l'Étoile filante. For a print it helps to know which book or series it comes from, the publisher, the paper and whether it is signed, and to check the sheet for toning or staining. The Comité Georges Rouault, through the Fondation Georges Rouault, examines works in person and issues certificates of authenticity.