The Dwarf

Georges RouaultWW-1937-101117

1937·Oil on paper, lined to canvas·69.2 × 50 cm (27 1/4 × 19 3/4 in.)

<p>Although Georges Rouault is perhaps best known for his religious imagery, he also painted characters living on the fringes of society. Drawing on the work of such artists as <a href="https://www.artic.edu/artists/40869">Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec</a> and <a href="https://www.artic.edu/artists/40543">Edgar Degas</a>, Rouault often depicted circus performers; their tragic-comic essence allowed him to sympathetically comment on the complexities of the human condition. <em>The Dwarf</em>, along with many of Rouault’s other paintings from this period, began as a work on paper that the artist mounted onto canvas during its making and continued to work. This unusual process, in addition to the application of several uneven layers of thick and colorful paint, allowed Rouault to achieve highly expressive effects.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1937
Medium: Oil on paper, lined to canvas
Dimensions: 69.2 × 50 cm (27 1/4 × 19 3/4 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Georges Rouault

Artist

Georges Rouault

Photography

Georges Rouault was a French painter and printmaker whose work merged Expressionist distortion with a deeply Catholic sensibility. Working primarily in oils and aquatint, he developed a distinctive technique of heavy black outlines and jewel-like color fields that recalled medieval stained glass and cloisonné enameling. His subjects ranged from tragic circus performers and prostitutes to biblical scenes and landscapes, each rendered with a formal intensity that transformed mundane or marginalized subjects into spiritual meditations. Active from the 1890s through the 1950s, Rouault's practice remained consistent in its moral gravity and formal innovation.

Paris, France

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