ROUAULT, Georges

Lot 163
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Estimation :
8000 - 12000 EUR
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Result : 15 797EUR
ROUAULT, Georges
Cirque de l'Étoile filante. Paris, Ambroise Vollard, 1938. Large folio (443 x 335 mm) of 2 ff.n.ch. (false title and title), 168 pp. 3 ff.n.ch., 17 original etchings (including the frontispiece) in colours and 82 woodcuts in the text by Georges Rouault. Black morocco, green and red morocco mosaic boards, set with gilt lines forming stars with the central one gilt, smooth gilt and mosaic spine, green suede lining, red suede endpapers, gilt edges on witnesses (except for the head-cut), cover and spine preserved (Georges Cretté), matching folder and slipcase. Garvey, 271; Castleman, p. 88; Chapon, Rouault, 240-256 First edition, illustrated with 17 original woodcut etchings in color and 82 in-text. Limited edition of 280 copies, this one of 215 on Montval. Georges Rouault (1871-1958) tried his hand at the subject of the circus, like many of his contemporaries. Clowns, acrobats and other circus characters are often for the artist the symbol of human suffering. Le Cirque de l'étoile filante follows a first aborted project, Cirque, on which Rouault worked from 1926 to 1932, supplying his publisher, Ambroise Vollard, with more than 70 woodcuts and coloured etchings, some drawn by Georges Aubert, others by Maurice Potin. The latter's work displeased the artist to the point that he broke with him in 1932. But it was André Suarès' text that put an end to the project, the publisher judging it too polemical. There was then talk of another Circus, without Suarès' text. This new project allowed the painter and the publisher not to lose all those years of work, the woodwork having been preserved. Georges Rouault therefore embarked on the production of 17 etchings, printed by Roger Lacourière, a perfect master printer. He also wrote the text for this new work. "The gaudy illusion of the circus symbolized to Rouault the grotesqueness of life. Much of the effect of his color etching is due to the master printer Roger Lacourière, who introduced the artist to the lift-ground or sugar aquatint process" (Garvey). A very fine copy. Provenance: H. Lebaudy (ex-libris).
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