Pasquale Iannetti Art Gallery

Original aquatint, burnisher, scraper, drypoint and roulette over heliogravure printed in black ink on heavy laid paper with the Ambroise Vollard and Arches watermarks. Signed and dated in the plate lower right. An impression from the état définitif from the edition of 450. Plate 27 for the series "Les Miserere". Published by Vollard and Société d'Édition Filante. Printed by Jaquemin, Paris. In excellent condition.

Dimensions: 22 7/8" x 16 3/8"
Catalogue reference: Chapon/Rouault 80e; Wofsy 134

"Sunt Lacrymae Rerum..." from Virgil's Aeneid I, tells of the tragic story of Orpheus and Eurydice. Orpheus, a talented musician and poet, was presented with a lyre by Apollo and instructed in its use by the Muses. His melodies could enchant wild beasts and trees, and rocks would move to follow the sound of his music. His beloved wife, Eurydice, dies from a serpent's bite she received while fleeing from Arestaeus. Orpheus boldly descends into the underworld to try to retrieve her. Bewitching all below with his music to let him through, Orpheus charmed Hades into agreeing to release Eurydice on one condition. She was to follow Orpheus through the passage, but he could not turn to look at her until she was safely in the sunlight of the outer world. As she followed the sound of his lyre, Orpheus led the way above ground, but turned too soon. Here, Orpheus mourns the second, and final loss of Eurydice.

The group of large aquatints that make up the series Miserere, are in many ways the capital works of Rouault's graphic work. Dating from the second period just after the First World War, when the terrible experiences of that destructive era combined with his growing contempt for the complacent attitudes of bourgeois society, the compositions have an almost explosive emotional power. They express his horror of war, his pity for the destruction of mankind, his contempt for an apparently uncaring society, and his belief in the ultimate saving power of the Christian belief.