Roman Head
Georges Rouault French
Not on view
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.
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