Roman Head
Roman Head was made during a particularly productive period, when the artist returned to painting and coloration after devoting much of the 1920s to printmaking in blacks and grays. Expressively rendered in jewel-like color with heavy black outlines—a holdover from the artist’s early training as a maker of stained glass—this imaginary portrait is one of a number of gouache "heads" from 1930 that represent female archetypes from the circus or the Commedia dell’arte. A devout Catholic, Rouault mostly depicted disreputable, marginalized subjects like prostitutes and clowns, whose emotional suffering he linked to the persecution of Christ. Here, the artist offers a social critique by making visible an outcast performer.
Artwork Details
- Title: Roman Head
- Artist: Georges Rouault (French, Paris 1871–1958 Paris)
- Date: 1930
- Medium: Brush and black ink, opaque watercolor and pastel on paper lined onto paper
- Dimensions: 11 1/8 × 8 5/16 in. (28.3 × 21.1 cm)
- Classification: Drawings
- Credit Line: Bequest of Mary Healy Hayes, 2015
- Object Number: 2018.659
- Rights and Reproduction: © 2025 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
- Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art
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Georges Rouault
Ambroise Vollard
n.d.
Georges Rouault
1930
Georges Rouault
1937–38
Georges Rouault
1932–41
Georges Rouault
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