Drawing Detail
SpringArtist: Georges Rouault
Medium: Drawings, Watercolour with touches of pastel, 72x57.4 cm
Date: 1911
Genre: Landscape
Source: State Museum of New Western Art, Moscow, 1934
The theme of a springtime landscape is quite rare in Rouault's works, the majority of which are tinted with pessimism. The outline of the composition framed with a patterned border resembles the rose windows of Gothic cathedrals, while the landscape and people are designated by intensive brushstrokes and streaks that define spatial planes. All this testifies to Rouault's passion for ornamentation, being the result of his work in the field of stained- glass windows and pottery. The light layers of watercolour between the interlacings of dark landscape forms create an effect of through glass illumination. However, Rouault does not imitate the stained-glass painting. Although the drawing looks like a decorative work, it has a certain painterly quality due to the artist's vivid perception of nature.