Georges Rouault

Georges Henri Rouault (27 May 1871 – 13 February 1958) was a French Fauvist and Expressionist painter.

Childhood and education

Rouault was born in Paris into a poor family. His mother taught him to love arts. He was Catholic, but he went to a Protestant school. At the age of 14, in 1885, Rouault embarked on an apprenticeship as a glass painter and restorer, which finished in 1890. According to some critics, his apprenticeship as a glass painter impressed on him some peculiarities, such as his typical black contouring or the expressionist fashion of mixing colours. At the same time he attended evening classes at the School of Fine Arts. In 1891 he entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, the official art school of France, where he was taught by Gustave Moreau and became his favorite student up to the point that when Moreau died in 1898 he was nominated the curator of the Moreau Museum in Paris.

Related Topics:
Paris - Arts - 1885 - 1890 - 1891 - Ecole des Beaux-Arts - Gustave Moreau

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Rouault's symbolism in the use of his colours for his first works was probably due to Moreau's influence. The intense black strokes for the outlines were influenced by the glasswork he did in his apprenticeship.

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