Page 53 - Studio International - November 1966

In homage to Rouault

Josef Herman

Rouault the religious painter, Rouault the social satirist, tion of culture and non-culture, or high culture and early
Rouault the black-and-white artist, Rouault the vision- culture. He was the successor to Rembrandt and
ary, Rouault the solitary—as with a diamond, there are so Daumier, and also to the anonymous craftsman, perhaps
many sides to a creative mind. His output was vast. How- even to the puppeteer and his art. This was why he liked
ever, this vastness is not torn in different directions. It is Jarry's Ubu Roi so much.
stationary, and the more powerful for it. It represents a Needless to add that with him painting was not a game
perfect continuity. in aesthetic discoveries or aesthetic inventions, etc. It was
At the centre of his art is his faith. Christian, Catholic, a moral act. The emotional appeal, the appeal to the
unorthodox, rebellious. He thought himself an 'ancient conscience, came first. It was this that made for the great
Christian' belonging more to the 'age of Cathedrals' than unity between his religious and non-religious subjects.
to our times. He dreamed of a wholesome community. He Christ walks in a modern, working-class suburb, prob-
was anti-bourgeois because bourgeois spells evil. His com- ably the suburb painted best by anybody, at any time.
passion was with the poor. Through him, as through And a flower piece, a nude, a tragic clown are his kin.
Péguy, we come to understand the impact modern Social- Yesteryear mixes with today. What does it matter?
ism made on some Catholic thinkers and artists. Miserere! is and has been the human cry. Absolute seri-
With the steadfastness of his beliefs he justified the single- ousness is at times relieved by his humorous bent.
mindedness of his purpose. Any belief is better than no Rouault seemed often to have painted with a twinkle in
belief. Not that all beliefs are equally true. But there is a his eye. His life's wisdom makes for the good-natured
power in belief which invigorates feeling and hence quality of his moral attitude. He expresses himself but
artistic expression. But with his belief Rouault could still never sermonizes. His pictures are too complex for any
have arrived at another kind of art. Others did. Why and direct message. When he wanted literature he wrote!
how did he come to the expression for which he is known ? Serenity came but late into his work, approximately
The answer lies in the Gothic nature of his temperament. from the 'thirties onwards. He seemed to have acquired a
Neither Rouault's faith nor his style stem from intellect, calm, as much as such a turbulent spirit can ever hope for.
but from emotion. They stem from a kind of romantic This is mostly true for all those landscapes bathed in a
feeling and from an exalted vision. He was ecstatic about rarified biblical atmosphere. Christ no longer walks in the
the simplicity of Christian answers to human fate—basic slums, but on roads, amidst palm trees in peaceful twi-
answers not complicated by the disputes of the theolo- light. His robe is invariably white. No longer the prosti-
gians. Answers which seemed natural and final in Christ's tute or the clown, but this white-robed Christ, is at the
mouth. Being an 'ancient Christian' implied a kind of centre of his latterday symbolism. There still came from
directness and a sort of primitiveness which are both in- him a picture or two as disturbing as anything he had
herent in his images. done, particularly during the years of Nazi occupation,
There were also memories of his early apprenticeship in but what was new was this consistent attempt at peace
Hirsch's stained-glass workshop. This experience in- and serenity.
fluenced his sense of colour; not at the beginning, in his Rouault's tragic vision was never without aim. His
blue period and watercolours, but later on. He wanted to emotional states were never chaotic. His freedom was not
do with pigments what light does with coloured glass. He without purpose. As I have tried to convey, his faith was
was striving after a unique kind of radiance of which his compass. With this, too, he is unlike most of his con-
there are no examples in the museums but are in cathe- temporaries. We of a later generation take heart from
drals. This was not the only way he used colour. The Rouault's example, from the contact with his art.
strong contrast and plasticity were the outcome of juxta-
In the outlying district of long labour
positions of large patches of colour, decorative in the
I love the diligent worker
monumental sense of the word. The heavy black line not
Who cherishes the material
only divides area from area, but gives each shape the
Which he fashions lovingly ...
precision of an ornament. What should be stressed is his
masterly drawing working its way through violent This incantation from a poem of his is worth all the
rhythms into an absolutely original design. Both drawing manifestos which have been written in the last half-
and design have obviously behind them the memory of century and should be inscribed upon each artist's single
museums, but they also come near to glowing Byzantium heaven. Diligence, cherishing the material, fashioning it
and the directness of primitive and folk art, the combina- lovingly—what more can there be said? q
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