Head of Christ
Artist
Georges Rouault
(French, 1871-1958)
CultureFrench
Date1905
MediumOil on paper, mounted on canvas
DimensionsOverall: 39 x 25 1/4 in. (99.1 x 64.1 cm)
Overall, Frame: 48 1/8 x 34 1/8 x 2 3/4 in. (122.2 x 86.7 x 7 cm)
Overall, Frame: 48 1/8 x 34 1/8 x 2 3/4 in. (122.2 x 86.7 x 7 cm)
InscribedSigned upper left: G. Rouault
Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.
Object number71.519
On View
Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 219
Label TextGeorges Rouault French (1871-1958) Head of Christ, 1905 Oil on paper, mounted on canvas Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.519 While most artists in early twentieth-century Paris devoted themselves to secular subjects, Rouault, an ardent Catholic, produced intensely emotional religious images and genre paintings that mirrored the timeless Christian themes of sin and salvation. His blunt and brutal Expressionist style also found few parallels in the French art of his day. He was ultimately hailed as the premier devotional artist of the early twentieth century, "the monk of modern art." In the 1905 Head of Christ, the Man of Sorrows-his face streaked with blood and his great, pain-filled eyes seemingly melting into tears-bears anguished witness to the sin and cruelty of humankind. Rouault initially trained in Paris as a stained glass maker, and in paintings such as this one, he was clearly influenced by the structure and hues of medieval glass windows, by their broad, flat fields of color and thick, leaded contours. ProvenanceGalerie de France, Paris; St. Georges Gallery, London, 1930; sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, April 12, 1933; Weyhe Gallery, New York, 1935; Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.; Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, 1971. Exhibition History"Choate Exhibition," Wallingford, Connecticut, Jan. 17 - Feb. 13, 1936. "Twentieth Century Painting," Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach, Feb. 20 - March 25, 1936. "Exhibition of the Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. Collection," Arts Club of Chicago, Jan. 8 -13, 1937. "Exposition Universelle," Paris, Summer 1937. "Selected Exhibition of the Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. Collection," Detroit Institute of Arts, Oct. 5 - 31, 1937. "Art in Our Time," Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1939. "Origins of Modern Art," Arts Club of Chicago, April 1940. "Georges Rouault," Institute of Modern Art, Boston, Phillips Memorial Gallery, Washington D.C., and San Francisco Museum of Art, Nov. 1940 - March 1941. "Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.," Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, and Philadelphia Museum of Art, Jan. 16 - May 11, 1941. "Paintings from Private Collections," Museum of Modern Art, New York, May 31 - Sept. 5, 1955. "Paintings from the Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.," Portland Art Museum, Oregon; Seattle Art Museum; California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Minneapolis Art Institute; St. Louis City Art Museum; William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City; Detroit Institute of Arts; and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; March 2, 1956 - April 14, 1957. "Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown Inaugural Exhibition," Provincetown, Massachusetts,1958. "The World of Art in 1910," Isaac Delgado Museum of Art, New Orleans, Nov. 15 - Dec. 31, 1960. "The Controversial Century 1850-1950," Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown, Massachusetts, and National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1962. "Treasures from the Chrysler Museum at Norfolk and Walter P. Chrysler, Jr." Tennessee Fine Arts Center at Cheekwood, Nashville, June 12 - Sept. 5, 1977. "Fifty Years of French Painting: The Emergence of Modern Art," Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama, Feb. 1 - March 30, 1980. "Georges Rouault," Josef-Haubrich-Kunsthalle, Cologne, March 11 - May 8, 1983. "French Paintings from the Chrysler Museum," North Carolina Museum of Art, May 31 - Sept. 14, 1986; Birmingham Museum of Art, Nov. 6, 1986 - Jan. 18, 1987. "This Anguished World of Shadows: Georges Rouault's Miserere et Guerre" Museum of Biblical Art, New York, March 30 - May 28, 2006 (exh. cat. pp. 28, 29 (fig. 7), 168-169, 191) "Mystic Masque: Semblance and Reality in Georges Rouault, 1871-1958," McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, August 30 - December 7, 2008 Published ReferencesBertina S. Manning. _Paintings from the Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.: An Exhibition Organized by the Portland Art Museum, Oregon_. Portland: Portland Art Association. 1956. No. 89. Bertina S. Manning. _Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown Inaugural Exhibition_. Provincetown, Massachusetts: Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown. 07/1958: 28, 93 (Plate 53). Foreword by Charles F. Comfort, LL.D., and an introduction by William S.A. Dale, Ph.D. _The Controversial Century: 1850-1950_. Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown, Massachusetts. 1962. Not paged. Eric M. Zafran and Mario Amaya. _Treasures from the Chrysler Museum at Norfolk and Walter P. Chrysler, Jr._. Tennessee Fine Arts Center at Cheekwood, Nashville. 1977. No. 51. Sharon Scholl. _Death and Humanities_. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press; London and Toronto: Associated University Presses. 1984: 143, 146, fig. 27. Duane and Sarah Preble. _Artforms: An Introduction to the Visual Arts_. 3rd edition. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers. 1985. No. 393, 348. Also reproduced in the 4th edition, 1989; 378, color ill. no. 490. Dale G. Cleaver. _Art: An Introduction_. 4th edition. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers. 1985. Fig. 19-7. Also reproduced in the 5th edition, San Diego, 1988; 325-26. Jefferson C. Harrison. _French Paintings from the Chrysler Museum_. The Chrysler Museum. 1986. No. 45. H.W. Janson. _History of Art_. 3rd edition. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.. 1986. Fig. 929, 668. Edited and with an introduction by John Dillenberger in collaboration with Jane Dillenberger; translations from German texts by Robert P. Scharlemann; plates selected by Jane Dillenberger. _Paul Tillich: On Art and Architecture_. New York: Crossroad. 1987. b/w ill. no. 49; pp. xxii, 39, 110, 115, 232. Munemoto Yanagi. _Georges Roulault's Works of Christian Soul_. Toyko: Gakken Co., Ltd. 1987: p. 26, No. 1, color ill. 27 Jane Dillenberger. _Style & Content in Christian Art_. New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company. 1988: 149, 211; plate 76. Cover illustration. _Time_. 08/15/1988: 4. Louis Dupre and Don E. Saliers, editors. "Christian Spirituality: Post-Reformation and Modernism." _World Spirituality: An Encyclopedic History of the Religious Quest_. Volume 18. New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company. 1989. Fig. 7. Merry E. Wiesner, et al. _Discovering the Western Past: A Look at the Evidence_. Volume 2. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1989. 228, 236. R.C. Monk and Joseph D. Stamey. _Exploring Christianity_. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. 1990. 117. Charles F. Stuckey. _French Painting_. New York: Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Inc. 1991. 211, 214. Jefferson C. Harrison. _The Chrysler Museum Handbook of the European and American Collections: Selected Paintings, Sculpture and Drawings_. The Chrysler Museum. 1991. 166-167, #126. Matthew Armstrong & William Rubin. _The William S. Paley Collection_. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. 1992. Fig. 70, 173. Diane Apostolos-Cappadona. _Dictionary of Christian Art_. New York: The Continuum Publishing Company. 1994. Fig. 102, 181; No. 102, 363. Kathy Bell. _Our Heritage in Christian Art_. Bob Jones University Press. 1998. 189. Timothy Long, _Arnulf Rainer and Georges Rouault: The Limits of Life_, exh. cat., MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, 2002, 12, fig. 2. ISBN: 1-896470-42-4 Holly Flora and Soo Yun Kang,_This Anguished World of Shadows: Georges Rouault's Miserere et Guerre_, exh. cat., Museum of Biblical Art, New York, 1865 Broadway, 2006, 28, 29, fig. 7, 168-169, 191. ISBN: 0-9777839-0-1 Jeff Harrison, _Collecting with Vision: Treasures From the Chrysler Museum of Art_ (London: D. Giles Ltd., 2007), 54, fig. 53. ISBN: 978-0-940744-72-1 Edited by Stephen Schloesser, _Mystic Masque: Semblance and Reality in Georges Rouault, 1871-1958_, exh. cat., McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA., 2008, 466, fig. 6. ISBN: 978-1-8928-5014-0
Jan Philips van Thielen
1651
