ROUAULT, Georges

Lot 472
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Estimation :
5000 - 8000 EUR
ROUAULT, Georges
Important set of manuscripts. 277 p. in 254 ff. in-4 and in-folio, fine vellum and tissue paper, a few in-folio ff. of fine tracing paper, red cardboard folder, titled in ink by the artist. These pages, probably written from 1940, during his exile in Golfe Juan, were given during the war to Claude Roulet who numbered them. In his long sleepless nights, Georges Rouault writes as he paints, in strokes that end up filling the page, making it almost black. Especially in the first few ff., the words are crossed out, erased, repeated, underlined, obliterated. In his notebook, which serves as an outlet, the themes are very varied: very spontaneous first drafts of untitled poems, letters (in particular a letter to Pierre Matisse, Dec. 1940), a study on Huysmans, considerations and reflections on Switzerland and his almost paternal relationship with Claude Roulet, the war, administrative difficulties, the lack of raw material for painting... - Poems addressed to Claude Roulet. "I greet you from my gourbi in Golfe Juan where the little Napoleon landed in 1815. [...] The house is modest but the sea is so beautiful. The children live a cavalcadent life and romp about near the gallery where the sun is playing. [...] When I see a blank canvas, I get dizzy and hesitate to look at it. And give up with a light hand the touch of a winged brush, which is why you have seen me sometimes perplexed. Excuse me Princess, and then on reflection you finally saw the handsome Hector rush me into battle as a hungry fawn on his prey. "The not always innocent and ludicrous desire to survive isn't just pride it's noble and desperate at times. Currently I am touched "in my living works" I can't explain... it would be too long, interminable... I summarize in one line "If you don't give a damn about painting, it will give a damn about you" Axiom of an old man I think who feels a bit the modernist paradox as if it was enough to take this literally to see the firebir
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