Self-Portrait III
1926
Medium
lithograph
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1943.3.7541
Art Historical Context
Georges Rouault's *Self-Portrait III*1926) is a striking lithograph that captures the French artist's introspective gaze during the interwar years. Born in 1871, Rouault apprenticed under stained-glass makers and studied with Gustave Moreau, influences that shaped his distinctive Expressionist style—marked by bold black contours, vivid colors, and a raw emotional intensity evoking medieval religious art. This self-portrait, part of a series, reveals Rouault's weathered features and piercing eyes, reflecting personal struggles amid Europe's turbulent 1920s. As a lithograph, the work exemplifie...
About the Artist
Georges Rouault
Georges-Henri Rouault was born on May 27, 1871, in a Paris cellar during the violent "Bloody Week" of the Paris Commune, when a stray shell destroyed his family's home in the working-class Belleville district. Raised by a carpenter father who worked at the Pleyel piano factory and a grandfather who collected prints by Honoré Daumier, Rembrandt, Courbet, and Manet, Rouault showed early artistic pro...