Georges Rouault (1871-1958) French, Signed "La Sainte Face" Etching Print. This piece was made to be the frontispiece lithograph La Sainte Face (also known as the Veil of Veronica), created for Marcel Arland's book Carnets de Gilbert, printed by the Nouvelle Revue Française (NRF) in 1931. Features a central haloed depiction of the Holy Face (the Veil of Veronica) flanked by two abstracted profile figures and crosses at the base. Signed in print and dated 1930 bottom left. Signed in pencil below image bottom right. 

Overall Size: 20 3/4 x 17 1/2 in. 

Sight Size: 11 x 7 1/2 in. 

Georges-Henri Rouault (1871-1958) was born into a poor Parisian family, and entered a five-year apprenticeship as a glass painter and restorer in 1885 while attending evening classes at the School of Fine Arts. In 1891 he enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts, studying under Gustave Moreau, who became his mentor and inspired Rouault’s early use of symbolic color, leading him to win awards and develop friendships with Henri Matisse, Albert Marquet, and others who connected him to Fauvism. His work evolved to explore moral and social criticism through series depicting courts, clowns, and prostitutes, influenced by Spiritualism and the philosopher Jacques Maritain, and Rouault increasingly incorporated Christian motifs, devoting himself fully to painting after World War I. In 1929 he designed Sergei Diaghilev’s ballet The Prodigal Son, leading to international exhibitions in London, New York, and Chicago, but the trauma of World War II and a mid-1950s cancer diagnosis prompted him to destroy about 300 unfinished works before he died in 1958. Interest in his oeuvre resurged decades later when his daughter Genevieve published a comprehensive biography with previously lost illustrations, securing his legacy in 20th Century art.

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