Georges Rouault and André Girard
Rouault and Girard: Crucifixion and Resurrection, Penitence and Life Anew
by Jonathan Evens
This paper was delivered at the ASCHA conference in Paris on Georges Rouault in 2022.
In Christianity in Art, published in 1959, Frank and Dorothy Getlein wrote that Georges Rouault ‘stands alone in what he achieved in Christian art in our time.’ This was because they viewed Rouault as being ‘the twentieth century artist above all others who fused into one monumental testament all the elements of the social revolution and the new Christianity.’ Yet, they also suggest that by the time he died ‘an impressive list of talented and honest artists exploring Christianity was in existence.’[i]
Kymberly M. Pinder, in writing on Romare Bearden, has also noted the popularity of Rouault’s work in this period. She sees this as attesting to ‘his influence, both thematically and stylistically, on American artists’ and gives several reasons why this was so. First, his ‘religious conviction and training as glazier lent his work a level of perceived authenticity.’ Second, the ‘1939 publication of Passion, a book of woodcuts, engravings and color etchings’ made his work more accessible. Third, from ‘April until June 1945, New York’s Museum of Modern Art held a large exhibition of Rouault’s art, and the museum and the press presented his expressive and solemn work in the context of war.’ Fourth, the ‘poignancy of Rouault’s dark and brooding images of the suffering Christ produced an emotional response that transcended history.’
Pinder suggests that, for ‘most American artists who addressed Christian themes’ at this time, including Beardon, Abraham Rattner and Josef Scharl, ‘the heavy use of black lines and saturated palettes’ ‘reflects Rouault’s influence.’[ii]
The Getlein’s list of artists exploring Christianity included Rico Lebrun, Graham Sutherland, Hans Moller, Jack Levine, Rattner and Alfred Manessier, but it was another French artist, André Girard, whose work appeared on the book’s cover and of whom they suggested his work should be seen as ‘the first move of Christian art toward the universal audience of today.’[iii]
This claim was made based on Girard’s innovative technique of painting on 70 millimeter film – ‘painting on light’ - enabling the creation of 23 films for television. Josephine Belloso describes these films as ‘a totally new art form, combining light, color, form, music, movement and time to create one unifying overwhelming dramatic effect.’[iv] In addition to his films and paintings, Girard also decorated four US churches and created seven art books.
Girard was 17 when he first met Rouault, who became a teacher and friend, leading to the development of Girard’s interest in and commitment to religious art. Although he enjoyed considerable recognition in his own day and time, the reputation of Girard has diminished with time, unlike that of Rouault. As a result, Girard’s work is ripe for rediscovery. This paper will therefore explore the influence of Rouault on Girard’s life and art by highlighting key strands of Rouault’s influence on Girard such as humility and risk taking, I will also explore some of the reasons why Rouault’s work transcends his age, while that of Girard seems to remain within his. Additionally, I will share the contrasts in their work noted by their friend André Suarés - penitence and affirmation.
Rouault and Girard first met in 1918 when Girard was a student trying to draw in the academic style of the School of Beaux Arts, while longing to draw in a much freer style. Rouault encouraged Girard not just to draw more freely but to leave the School of Beaux Arts and study with him. Looking back on this period, Girard thought that he had exhibited ‘a certain vanity’ about his ‘skill in the academic games.’ Rouault had taught him humility firstly by showing him ‘the endless variations’ of subtle colours that the light was playing with on the jar and tablecloth of a still life and, then, by asking him to paint that variation of colours day in, day out for several months.[v]
Rouault wrote a preface addressed to the young artist in the catalogue of Girard’s 1937 exhibition at the Musée de l'Athénée in Geneva. He described the attitude of humility that he had practised and taught as follows: ‘It is good not to be too ignorant of ourselves, but alas, for some of us it is especially after long effort and little by little, step by step, that we succeed in better knowing ourselves – there is wisdom in limiting oneself but first one must acquire much and also not over-extend oneself.’[vi] Girard tells a story of a conversation between Rouault and Jacques Maritain in which Rouault frets because he has received a degree of fame not granted to Cezanne, Manet or Renoir and, therefore, thinks he must have done something wrong as a result. Maritain said he saw ‘the true Rouault’ in that anxiety. Girard sums up this attitude in a sentence from one of the many letters Rouault wrote to him, ‘Do not fear to be last, because true humility is not mediocrity.’[vii]
In the same catalogue preface Rouault also notes the role of artists in finding a refuge for individuals in times of social violence, envy and hate. This is essentially Rouault’s model of prophetic social and spiritual action. He writes of this refuge as being ‘an oasis, others will say a mirage, a happy magic, I do not say a saviour, since I am a little afraid of big words; the light is sweeter there, one feels so much at peace there, far from infinite discord, false bargains, vain alliances and eternal duplicity, far from cursed gatherings where words are often so skilfully basely exploited.’ This refuge that the artist creates is fashioned through ‘Form, colour, harmony, beloved motherland.’[viii]
Rouault also emphasised the importance of risk and discovery, quoting a famous musician as saying, ‘I am the rule until I break it.’ He writes of ‘little by little forgetting theories and arbitrary professions of faith’ in order that one ‘may experience a delicious feeling of security in knowing then what is right to do.’[ix]
This completes the circle that Girard draws for us; the break with the rules of the School of Beaux Arts to then humbly paint the same still life again and again in order to instinctively know how to fashion a refuge using form, colour and harmony. These are lessons that Girard learns well and practises. We know this because the poet André Suarés, in a catalogue foreword for a later exhibition by Girard, notes that Girard’s work departs significantly from that of Rouault. Rouault, Suarés argues, paints as a penitent with a tragic vision using ‘materials with an incomparable force, in order to curse the world.’ Girard, by contrast, ‘loves the world and its materials.’ Rather than exhibiting the attitude of the penitent, Girard is infatuated with life, throwing himself with passion into everything that attracts him. To describe this difference and its effect, Suarés creates a visual contrast between Rouault’s ‘art of the stained-glass’ for which ‘one must imagine the invisible sun blazing behind the window, for the vision of the painter lies in the glowing shadow.’ By contrast, ‘even in the night, the art and colourful language of André Girard bring light into play.’ Suarés imagines Girard ‘becoming more and more pure,’ finding ‘his plenitude, if not his perfection, in the tenderness of mystic peace,’ even bringing a new art into being.’[x]
Suarés is right. Girard’s great achievement was his ‘painting on light’, both painting on glass and film. At Stowe and Palo Alto churches, Girard painted directly on clear glass ‘against the light of the sun passing through the windows’ creating ‘subtle as well as dramatic effects’ by ‘juxtaposing translucent and opaque paint in multiple layers.’[xi]
Together with the architect Jean Labatut, he also prepared a model for the Church of the Four Evangelists, modelled in Labatut’s architecture lab, as a circular glass structure adorned with murals in broad brushstrokes and primary colours. The model was exhibited in New York, Chicago and Princeton through 1951-52.
Beginning in 1959 and continuing until 1968, for film Girard adapted his painting on glass approach using ‘inks, glazes, stained-glass paints, and enamels’ to paint on long strips of film. His student and restorer Josephine Belleroso writes that: ‘As the film was passed through a horizontal filmstrip projector, movement was achieved, and as the images passed along the light the colors became gloriously more vibrant. Since the color white was actually pure light passing through clear film, it added to the intensity of the images. The final effect was as if one was viewing a continuous mural of stained glass passing before you illustrating the story.’[xii]
Girard embraced these innovations – these new forms of art - in just the way Suarés so vividly describes and anticipates and yet it is in this same embrace of innovation that we can locate the fading of Girard’s reputation in contrast to the maintenance of Rouault’s. To remain with Suarés’ visual contrast, the solidity of Rouault’s stained-glass art has outlasted the innovation of Girard’s ‘painting on light’. Girard’s innovations have not lasted; the new technologies he utilised have, from the end of the 1980s, been overtaken by videocassettes, DVDs, and now Digital. What was innovatory in his day has increasingly become outmoded and dated. In addition, his works created by ‘painting on light’ have not aged well. The works at Stowe and Palo Alto need or have required regular restoration. Cynthia Haven quotes John Kysela, a San Francisco Bay Area art publicist and historian well-acquainted with the church’s artwork, as saying: ‘André thought that painting on glass would revolutionize the whole liturgical glass business.’ ‘He thought it would outlast medieval stained glass. It didn’t.’[xiii] At Stowe, Belloroso had to devise a digital alternative to Girard’s paint on glass to enable his images to remain on the windows of the church, albeit in amended fashion.
Girard’s liturgical work for churches and Universities began in 1948 with a triptych of St. Bernard of Clairvaux for St Vincent Archabbey, Pennsylvania and continued to 1955 with windows in New York and a mural in Milwaukee. However, the key works at Stowe and Palo Alto have for many years either been in need of or receiving restoration, while the model for the Church of The Four Evangelists did not lead on to commissions for Girard and Labatut. Then, the films took over with Girard producing 23 between 1959 and 1968 with commissions from ABC, CBS, NBC and the State of Israel, and awards including the Television Arts Award of the National Council of Catholic Men in 1959. However, following commemorative showings after Girard’s death in 1968, select films have only been seen again on screen in 1972, 1975, 1977 and 1985. The films also required restoration as heat from the projector melted some of the paint leaving it stuck to the reverse side of the film. Belloroso, again, was a saviour in this situation restoring the five films on the life of Christ and The Story of Abraham enabling them to be transferred onto 35mm film. The lack of longevity found in Girard’s innovations combined with the increasing speed of technological development have negatively impacted opportunities to show and view key works from the period in which he produced his most public and celebrated works.
Given these issues, where else can we look to see how Girard’s oeuvre adds to that of Rouault? The answer is to be found in the seven illustrated books he created from 1948 to 1956 which he printed by hand using the silk screen method of printing. Victor Strauss writes that ‘Girard’s books are unique in the history of contemporary bookmaking’ because of his ‘turning away from typography.’[xiv] Girard ‘achieved prints that were so rich in color, texture, detail, shading, and highlights they rivalled the effects of paintings,’[xv] while ‘his lettering expresses the inner struggle of the artist.’[xvi]
The contrast made by Suarés can be clearly seen if we compare Girard’s book designs to those of Rouault as, for example, if we look at Girard’s Sayings of Jesus – The Sermon on the Mount and The Instructions to the Disciples alongside Rouault’s Miserere. Strauss views Sayings of Jesus as Girard’s ‘ripest work and the chef d’oeuvre of all his serigraphic books, unsurpassed by anyone else who used the same medium.’ This is because ‘Subject and graphic representation are in complete accord’ making it ‘a work of greatest harmony’ where ‘Girard’s own emotions and convictions, his life-long studies of the Gospels, are magnificently expressed.’[xvii]
William Dyrness explains that it was particularly in his printmaking that Rouault’s religious vision took shape; an ‘anguished view of the human situation’ from within which he was able to ‘discover the hope of salvation.’ He ‘began his Miserere series during the somber days of World War I and had finished it by 1927’ although it was only in 1948 that the series of fifty-eight plates were finally published in a limited edition.[xviii] Rouault ‘first drew the images in India ink and later reproduced them as engravings, reworking the plates over the years—scraping deeper with a file or sanding with emery paper’-to show that ‘Deep down inside the most unfriendly, unpleasant, and impure creature, Jesus dwells.’
Dryness notes that: ‘In one print, a father reaches down to encourage his son: the caption reads, “take refuge in your heart, vagabond of misfortune.” … In the plate captioned “In the old district of Long Suffering,” a little family huddles beneath a tree that offers small comfort. His images are often distressing. As his friend Jacques Maritain said, art often must de-form to get at the nature of things.’ ‘Rouault was able to see these dreary figures without pity or despair because … he was able to look into their suffering and see Jesus. In 1939, he wrote these lines:
His friends were fishermen
Understood in the best sense;
Clearly he could do no other,
In taking on our suffering,
Than going where it was most severe.
By contrast, as Maritain has also suggested, ‘An extraordinary generosity animates’ Girard’s art. ‘This generosity is nourished by faith and intelligence, an assiduous meditation on the Gospels … and a contemplative pondering over the things he paints.’[xix] This generosity is sensed in the movement and light which animate the drama. Lynn Miller suggests that Girard’s And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors illustrated what the unforgiving servant should have done in the Parable told in Matthew 18:32-33. This work: ‘places a single figure, dressed in blue, at the center of the composition. On the left side gof the composition that figure is in the supplicant's position (head lower, face looking up). On the right side the figure looks down on a lower figure. That central figure is shown with two faces but is not two-faced in the negative sense of that phrase. The same general expression is shown on the two versions of the central figure's face. This is the consistency that the parable's king wanted to see in his servants. It is the consistency with which we should live if we are going to pray the Lord's Prayer.’[xx]
Dyrness notes that for Rouault ‘the resurrection is seldom a direct subject’, although ‘the cross always implies that hope’ and, in his later pieces, the resurrection is seen in surfaces which ‘seem to burst into flame.’[xxi] Miserere could have included a resurrection image, but the image Rouault prepared was excluded from the final version. This decision reinforces the distinction Suarés makes between the two and suggests a reason, beyond the inherent quality of the work, why we should rediscover Girard’s work; which is that when we combine the work of the teacher with that of his student, we encounter the full Gospel in depictions both of the dying world into which Christ comes and the abundance of life that is found in and through him as he brings a new world into being, just as Girard, the words of Suarés brings a new art into being.
[i] F. and D. Getlein, Christianity in Art, The Bruce Publishing Company, 1959, p.186.
[ii] K.M. Pinder, ‘Deep Waters: Rebirth, Transcendence, and Abstraction in Romare Bearden’s Passion of Christ’ in J. Romaine and P. Wolfskill ed., Beholding Christ and Christianity in African American Art, The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2007, pp.158-159.
[iii] F. and D. Getlein, Christianity in Art, The Bruce Publishing Company, 1959, p.189.
[iv] J. Belloso, ‘André Girard: Modern Master’ in J. Belloroso ed., André Girard: Modern Master, Queensborough Community College of The City University of New York, 1982, p.9.
[v] A. Girard, ‘Georges Rouault: My Friend and Teacher’ in J. Belloroso ed., André Girard: Modern Master, Queensborough Community College of The City University of New York, 1982, p.32-33.
[vi] G. Rouault, ‘André Girard - Painter’ in J. Belloroso ed., André Girard: Modern Master, Queensborough Community College of The City University of New York, 1982, p.10.
[vii] A. Girard, ‘Georges Rouault: My Friend and Teacher’ in J. Belloroso ed., André Girard: Modern Master, Queensborough Community College of The City University of New York, 1982, p.32-33.
[viii] G. Rouault, ‘André Girard - Painter’ in J. Belloroso ed., André Girard: Modern Master, Queensborough Community College of The City University of New York, 1982, p.10.
[ix] Ibid.
[x] A. Suares, ‘André Girard, Painter of the Apocalypse’ in J. Belloroso ed., André Girard: Modern Master, Queensborough Community College of The City University of New York, 1982, p.12.
[xi] J. Belloroso, Painting on Light: A Restoration – the Story of André Girard’s Dramatic Windows and Murals at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, Stowe, Vermont, 2017, p.8.
[xii] J. Belloroso, Painting on Light: A Restoration – the Story of André Girard’s Dramatic Windows and Murals at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, Stowe, Vermont, 2017, p.28.
[xiii] C. Haven, ‘A Spiritual Home Finds Salvation’ in Stanford Magazine, Stanford Alumni Association, July/August 2003 - https://web.stanford.edu/~clh/articles/spiritualHome.html .
[xiv] V. Strauss, ‘Andre Girard’s Handmade Books – A Tour De Force in Serigraphy’ in J. Belloroso ed., André Girard: Modern Master, Queensborough Community College of The City University of New York, 1982, p.26.
[xv] J. Belloroso, Painting on Light: A Restoration – the Story of André Girard’s Dramatic Windows and Murals at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, Stowe, Vermont, 2017, p.24.
[xvi] V. Strauss, ‘Andre Girard’s Handmade Books – A Tour De Force in Serigraphy’ in J. Belloroso ed., André Girard: Modern Master, Queensborough Community College of The City University of New York, 1982, p.28.
[xvii] V. Strauss, ‘Andre Girard’s Handmade Books – A Tour De Force in Serigraphy’ in J. Belloroso ed., André Girard: Modern Master, Queensborough Community College of The City University of New York, 1982, p.29.
[xviii] W. Dyrness, ‘Seeing Through the Darkness: Georges Rouault’s Vision of Christ’ in Image Journal Issue 67 - https://imagejournal.org/article/seeing-through-the-darkness/
[xix] J. Maritain, ‘Visit at St Ann’s Chapel’ in J. Belloroso ed., André Girard: Modern Master, Queensborough Community College of The City University of New York, 1982, p.23.
[xx] L. Miller, ‘Forgiving Debts’ in Art&Faith Matters, 2014 - http://artandfaithmatters.blogspot.com/2014/09/forgiving-debts.html
[xxi] W. Dyrness, ‘Seeing Through the Darkness: Georges Rouault’s Vision of Christ’ in Image Journal Issue 67 - https://imagejournal.org/article/seeing-through-the-darkness/
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ArtWay's Chairman Wim Eikelboom: "The visual arts cultivate a fresh and renewed view of deeply entrenched values. That is why ArtWay is happy to provide an online platform for art old and new."
Read more...14 November 2017 / The Moral Imagination: Art and Peacebuilding
In the context of conflict transformation the key purpose of creative expression is to provide a venue for people to tell their stories, and for their stories to be heard.
Read more...24 October 2017 / Bruce Herman: Ut pictura poesis?
For the last couple hundred of years the arts have largely been in "experimentation mode"—moving away from the humble business of craft and service toward ideas, issues, and theory.
Read more...04 October 2017 / David Jeffrey: Art and Understanding Scripture
The purpose of In the Beauty of Holiness: Art and the Bible in Western Culture is to help deepen the reader’s understanding of the magnificence of the Bible as a source for European art.
Read more...08 September 2017 / David Taylor: The Aesthetics of John Calvin
Calvin stated that 'the faithful see sparks of God's glory, as it were, glittering in every created thing. The world was no doubt made, that it might be the theater of divine glory.'
Read more...23 August 2017 / Reconstructed by Anikó Ouweneel
A much talked-about exposition in the NoordBrabants Museum in The Netherlands showed works by modern and contemporary Dutch artists inspired by traditional Catholic statues of Christ and the saints.
Read more...04 July 2017 / Pilgrimage to Venice – The Venice Biennale 2017
When I start to look at the art works, I notice a strange rift between this pleasant environment and the angst and political engagement present in the works of the artists.
Read more...24 June 2017 / Collecting as a Calling
After many years of compiling a collection of religious art, I have come to realize that collecting is a calling. I feel strongly that our collection has real value and that it is a valuable ministry.
Read more...02 June 2017 / I Believe in Contemporary Art
By Alastair Gordon
In recent years there has been a growing interest in questions of religion in contemporary art. Is it just a passing fad or signs of renewed faith in art?
Read more...04 April 2017 / Stations of the Cross - Washington, DC 2017
by Aaron Rosen
We realized that the Stations needed to speak to the acute anxiety facing so many minorities in today’s America and beyond.
Read more...07 March 2017 / Socially Engaged Art
A discussion starter by Adrienne Dengerink Chaplin
Growing dissatisfaction with an out-of-touch, elite and market driven art world has led artists to turn to socially engaged art.
Read more...01 February 2017 / Theodore Prescott: Inside Sagrada Familia
The columns resemble the trunks of trees. Gaudi conceived of the whole interior as a forest, where the nave ceiling would invoke the image of an arboreal canopy.
Read more...03 January 2017 / Steve Scott tells about his trips to Bali
In the Balinese shadow play the puppet master pulls from a repertoire of traditional tales and retells them with an emphasis on contemporary moral and spiritual lessons.
Read more...09 December 2016 / Newsletter ArtWay December 2016
Like an imitation of a good thing past, these days of darkness surely will not last. Jesus was here and he is coming again, to lead us to the festival of friends.
Read more...01 November 2016 / LAbri for Beginners
What is the role of the Christian artist? Is it not to ‘re-transcendentalise’ the transcendent, to discern what is good in culture, and to subvert what is not with a prophetic voice?
Read more...30 September 2016 / Book Review by Jonathan Evens
Jonathan Koestlé-Cate, Art and the Church: A Fractious Embrace - Ecclesiastical Encounters with Contemporary Art, Routledge, 2016.
Read more...01 September 2016 / Review: Modern art and the life of a culture
The authors say they want to help the Christian community recognize the issues raised in modern art and to do so in ways that are charitable and irenic. But I did not find them so. Their representation of Rookmaaker seems uncharitable and at times even misleading.
Read more...29 July 2016 / Victoria Emily Jones on Disciplining our Eyes
There’s nothing inherently wrong with images—creating or consuming. In fact, we need them. But we also need to beware of the propensity they have to plant themselves firmly in our minds.
Read more...30 June 2016 / Aniko Ouweneel on What is Christian Art?
Pekka Hannula challenges the spectator to search for the source of the breath we breathe, the source of what makes life worth living, the source of our longing for the victory of redemptive harmony.
Read more...09 June 2016 / Theodore Prescott: The Sagrada Familia
Sagrada Familia is a visual encyclopedia of Christian narrative and Catholic doctrine as Gaudi sought to embody the faith through images, symbols, and expressive forms.
Read more...19 May 2016 / Edward Knippers: Do Clothes make the Man?
Since the body is the one common denominator for all of humankind, why do we fear to uncover it? Why is public nudity a shock or even a personal affront?
Read more...27 April 2016 / Alexandra Harper: Culture Care
Culture Care is an invitation to create space within the local church to invest our talents, time and tithes in works that lean into the Kingdom of God as creative agents of shalom.
Read more...06 April 2016 / Jonathan Evens on Contemporary Commissions
The issue of commissioning secular artists versus artists of faith represents false division and unnecessary debate. The reality is that both have resulted in successes and failures.
Read more...12 March 2016 / Betty Spackman: Creativity and Depression
When our whole being is wired to fly outside the box, life can become a very big challenge. To carve oneself into a square peg for the square holes of society, when you are a round peg, is painful to say the least.
Read more...24 February 2016 / Jim Watkins: Augustine and the Senses
Augustine is not saying that sensual pleasure is bad, but that it is a mixed good. As his Confessions so clearly show, Augustine is painfully aware of how easily he can take something good and turn it into something bad.
Read more...11 February 2016 / H.R. Rookmaaker: Does Art Need Justification?
Art is not a religion, nor an activity relegated to a chosen few, nor a mere worldly, superfluous affair. None of these views of art does justice to the creativity with which God has endowed man.
Read more...26 January 2016 / Ned Bustard: The Bible is Not Safe
Revealed is intended to provoke surprise, even shock. It shows that the Bible is a book about ordinary people, who are not only spiritual beings, but also greedy, needy, hateful, hopeful, selfish, and sexual.
Read more...14 January 2016 / Painting by Nanias Maira from Papua New Guinea
In 2011 Wycliffe missionary Peter Brook commissioned artist Nanias Maira, who belongs to the Kwoma people group of northwestern Papua New Guinea, to paint Bible stories in the traditional style for which he is locally known.
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