Rouault, Georges Henri 1871-1958
French painter and engraver

Born in Paris, he was apprenticed to a stained-glass designer in 1885. He used glowing colours, outlined with black, to achieve a concise depiction of the clowns, prostitutes and biblical characters he chose as his subjects. He studied under Gustave Moreau, and in 1898 was made curator of the Moreau Museum, Paris. About 1904 he joined the Fauves (Henri Matisse, Andr� Derain and others), and in 1910 held his first one-man show. Many of his works were acquired by the art dealer Ambroise Vollard (1865-1939), who commissioned the series of large religious engravings published after Vollard's death as Miserere and Guerre.