Nu

Renowned as a uniquely individual artist, George Rouault's practice resides within its own definition, escaping easy assimilation into any one artistic movement or school. In reality, Rouault owed his inspiration and development as an artist to a number of contributing factors, a mélange of influences seen on full display in his work Nu, painted circa 1925. Certainly, the artist must have melded his many influences in an attractive way to gain the attention of dealer Ambroise Vollard, known to have represented successful and groundbreaking artists such as Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
Perhaps the most striking visual influence present here is Rouault’s affinity for stained glass. Having completed an apprenticeship with a stained-glass artist in Paris, Rouault achieved in his artwork an understanding of light and colour altogether removed from his contemporaries. The most striking contrast of Nu arrives thanks to Rouault’s masterful play of light and shadow. The radiant nude form finds herself surrounded by a dramatic backdrop of rich, dark, surfaces. All of the picture’s light emanates from the nude, whom Rouault has placed not in the perfect center, but curving from one corner of the painting to the other. Rouault creates a clever visual conundrum where the work seems not to be lit from any point out of our view, but from behind or even within, mimicking a stained glass window aflame with sunlight pouring out towards the viewer.
The painting works then as a point of refraction, hinting at an uncertain form of subtle movement, that of fluid, bending beams of light. Here, Rouault creates another instance of visually satisfying contrast. The environment of the woman, composed of dark blues and greens, remains limited to a strict verticality of controlled strokes. On the other hand, Rouault grants the woman’s form more freedom, as bright slashes of red and yellow contour and bisect, further suggesting rays of seemingly real light entering the canvas from an unknown source.
Rouault’s dynamic use of colour in Nu calls to mind his association with contemporary Fauves like Henri Matisse and André Derain who shared a similar primary concern with the role of colour in creating a harmonious picture. Rouault’s use of colour marks a different approach, however – one tempered by inky, blotted lines of thick black paint that break the picture down into different zones, further accentuating the dark background and framing the fiery nude. The result is a striking visual experience, complete with the swimming colour that defined Rouault’s expressive contemplation of the human form.
Painted as the artist was approaching the age of sixty, Nu demonstrates Rouault’s triumphal return later in his career towards a complete focus on creating artwork that explores the most foundational aspects of painting. After decades of honing a style that blended his many experiences, Rouault found the opportunity to crystallize his sense of self on canvas, playing with the building blocks of colour and light to construct an emotional portrait that lives and breathes before our very eyes.
No surprise then that Nu was chosen for the significant 1937 exhibition at the Petit Palais, Paris, Les Maîtres de l'art indépendant 1895-1937, demonstrating the preeminence of French contemporary painters at the International Exhibition of that same year. Nu furthermore toured significant institutions across the United States of America and Europe as part of a number of the artist's most significant retrospectives over the latter half of the 20th Century, reflecting its significant achievement within Rouault's oeuvre as a work of great sensuality, masterful colouration and elegant expressionism.