Georges Rouault Quotes about Art

Georges Rouault was a famous French painter, watercolorist and printmaker loosely associated with the fauvist and expressionist art movements. He is best known for his emotion-filled clowns, ladies of the night and religious figures. Famous Georges Rouault artworks include “The Old King”, “Slaughter”, “The Three Judges”, “The Clown”, “Christ Mocked by Soldiers”, “Two Nudes (The Sirens)”, “Pierrot”, “La Fuite en Egypte”, “Three Clowns”, and “Automne ou Nazareth”.

Mini biography: Born Georges Henri Rouault on the 27th of May, 1871 in Paris, France. His mother was Marie-Louise Champdavoine and his father Alexander Rouault was a cabinetmaker. Rouault married Marthe Le Sidaner in 1908 and they had four children together. The artist died on the 13th of February, 1958 in Paris, France at the age of 86. Georges Rouault is buried at the Cimetière Saint Louis (Cemetery of Saint-Louis, Versailles) in Versailles, Departement des Yvelines, Île-de-France, France.

List of Famous Georges Rouault Art Quotes

A painter who loves his art must be careful not to see too much of critics and men of letters. These gentlemen, however unconsciously, distort everything, thinking that they are explaining it—the artist’s thought, sensibility, and intensions. They take away his strength, just as Delilah took away Samson’s. They have no gift for nuances, and they have an instinctive aversion for everything that is beyond their reach and baffles them. Georges Rouault

The artist discards all theories, both his own and those of others. He forgets everything when he is in front of his canvas. Georges Rouault

I underwent a moral crisis of the most violent sort. I experienced things which cannot be expressed by words. And I began to paint with an outrageous lyricism which disconcerted everybody. Georges Rouault

I saw quite clearly that the ‘clown’ was me, was us, nearly all of us. Georges Rouault

Nothing is old, nothing is new, save the light of grace underneath which beats a human heart. The way of feeling, of understanding, of loving; the way of seeing the country, the faces that your father saw, that your mother knew. Georges Rouault

The reason I gave my judges such woeful faces was doubtless because I expressed the anguish that I myself feel when I see one human obliged to judge another. Georges Rouault

The conscience of an artist worthy of the name is like an incurable disease which causes him endless torment but occasionally fills him with silent joy. Georges Rouault

Painting for me is merely a means of forgetting life. It is a cry in the night. A sob broken off. A strangled laugh. Georges Rouault

The painter who loves his art is ruler in his own kingdom, even if he be in Lilliput and a Lilliputian himself. He transforms a kitchen maid in to a fairy, and a great lady into a brothel matron, if he wants to and sees them so, for he is a seer. His vision includes everything that is alive in the past. Georges Rouault

I am a believer and a conformist. Anyone can revolt; it is more difficult silently to obey our own interior promptings, and to spend our lives finding sincere and fitting means of expression for our temperaments and our gifts — if we have any. Georges Rouault

Georges Rouault Self-Portrait Painting

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Related or similar popular artists include: Georg Baselitz, Bernard Buffet, Vincent van Gogh, Henri Matisse, Jean Dubuffet, and other Famous French Painters.