RICHARD  NATHANSON

GEORGES ROUAULT

1871-1958

Anais   oil   10 x 7 ins                                                                                                                             

Images and colours are, for a painter, his way of being, of living, of thinking, of feeling.

For this poor devil, art is his only reason for being.

When, for some, the human face meant only a kind of official Salon portrait; and for others it was of little interest, I felt it to be an infinite source of ways of expression, of an incomparable richness.

Arlequin   oil   24.75 x 17 ins                                                                                                            

The gaze of old Rembrandt or the death mask of Beethoven move me as much as an entire century of heroic deeds. In reality, what is beautiful remains hidden and it has always been so. One must be worthy of searching for it and of persevering until death to find it.

There will always be pain and anguish for whoever engages in this quest, but also profound and silent joy.

Biblical Landscape   oil   9.25 x 6  ins                                                                                          

The machine invades earth and sky; it reaches the depths of the sea and even into the desert without fear of troubling the morning air. Life becomes faster and faster without anymore time even to sigh at the moment of dying. In this mechanical age is not art sometimes the miracle.

A scholar once said, ‘There is no longer any mystery, one can be very learned and at the same time very stupid’. In the spiritual spheres where the artist ventures, all is mysterious, but there prevails an order of greater truth than that of the man in charge of weights and measures.

Christ Flagelle   gouache, oil   25 x 19 ins                                                                                    

One does not enter tradition as one would a bus. More secret affinities are needed.

Christ on the Lake   oil   6.75 x 8 ins                                                                                                                                                                       

Everything today, seen under a certain light, is so different from yesterday. But this is perhaps only outwardly so. Nothing about this sky, this earth, this tree has altered or changed since Cimabue. It is you who, following the ideas you have in your head, believe everything to vary with the whim of your transient impressions.

Fleurs   oil   22 x 17 ins                                                                                                                                               

Art is the hidden spring, oasis in the desert. In these favourable times, we believe ourselves to have arrived at the point of knowing everything whilst completely ignoring the essential which is love of all beauty whether visible or hidden.

Karsavina   oil   20.5  x 14  ins                                                                                                              

When I see again certain Egyptian sphinxes, or some fragment from a cathedral, or from the Renaissance, nay even the roughness of the Arc de Triomphe, I dare to ask myself where is the progress which we are forever hearing about.

Pancrace   oil   10 x 7 ins                                                                                                                 

The ancient artisan loved his stone or his wood. And he worked with love. Anonymous hand of a grandiose work, was he not far superior to so many of the shallow personalities of our age.

Biblical landscape  oil   6.75 x 5.5 ins                                                                                                  

Adore everything that lives beneath the sky. The light is so beautiful, the dusk and even the shadows. Do not flee from suffering or misery like a stag at bay pursued by the hounds. Never yield the slightest of what you truly believe within yourself to precarious self-interest, privileges or false honours.

Qui ne se Grime pas   ink, gouache, oil   21.75  x 16  ins                                                                                       

Who does not put on a mask?

Musician clown   oil   12.75 x 8 ins                                                                                              

Christ et Docteur  1937  Oil  9 .25¼ x 9 3/8 ins                                                                                                      

Isabelle Rouault, the artist’s daughter, listed for me eight paintings she considered closely related to this picture. They are reproduced in her catalogue raisonné, nos: 1543, 1544, 1545, 1547 1548, 1549, 1558 bis, 2394 entitled 'Passion'.

In his paintings of 'Christ and The Pharisee Doctor', Rouault portrays Christ principally as a solitary, vulnerable and vilified figure. 

In this mysteriously poignant, powerful image, the Pharisee’s downcast, introspective gaze shows him visibly moved as Christ reaches out to touch him.

Clown Pensif  Oil                                                                                                                                                     

Le Vieux Clown  c.1905  Oil                                                                                                                            

Auguste  oil   6.75 x 5 5/8 ins                                                                                                                         

Christ Before Pilate  oil