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Georges Rouault
(1871-1958) is an isolated figure in twentieth-century art, a man
who remained outside of the group movements and manifestoes that dominated
the century, and was possessed of a fixed and persistent artistic vision.
A devout Catholic, Rouault's faith informed his work, which at times
seems to serve as a vehicle for moral judgment and retains vitality and
relevance today. Rouault himself said, "All of my work is religious
for those who know how to look at it."
The Miserere
etchings are in many senses a comprehensive expression of Rouault's
religious vision. Georges Chabot writes, "Here faith, love, and charity,
vanity and cruelty, hypocrisy and pharisaism, life and death, are synthesized
... This work is striking, even frightening. Every element in it has
greatness. In the Miserere, in this ensemble of aggressive, sparse, grandiose
compositions, Rouault has perhaps expressed himself most completely."
Rouault writes in the preface to the series:
... Most of the subjects date from 1914-18. They were originally drawn
in India ink, and later, at Ambroise Vollard's [Rouault's powerful
Parisian art dealer] request, were transformed into paintings. He then
had them transferred to copper plates. It was apparently desirable that
a first impression on copper should be made. With these as a starting
point, I have tried, taking infinite pains, to preserve the rhythm and
quality of the original drawing. I worked unceasingly on each plate, with
varying success, using many different tools. There is no secret about
my methods. Dissatisfied, I reworked the plates again and again, sometimes
making as many as fifteen successive states; for I wished them as far
as possible to be equal in quality. ...
The engravings were printed in an edition of 450 in 1927, although it
was 20 years before they would be exhibited.
Born out of the unprecedented violence of the First World War and Rouault’s
intense compassion for the marginalized and underprivileged, the Miserere
stand as a singular achievement in the realms of printmaking and religious
art. They speak as forcefully and as poignantly today as when they were
first printed nearly 80 years ago.
MOCRA is grateful to the Jesuit Community at Saint Louis University
for its assistance in rematting and reframing the Miserere.
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