Estate of the artist
Galerie Beyeler, Basel
Sale: Calmels, Chambre, Cohen, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, December 15, 2000, lot 58
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

 Edward Alden Jewell states the following about the early years of Rouault's artistic production, "Though not 'officially' a Fauve, Rouault showed with the group and became popularly identified with it.  Like that of the Fauves, Rouault's style was in those days an art of violent expressionism.  And like theirs it represented a revolt against the stuffy academic standards of the day.  But Rouault also walked apart.  For one thing, he differed from the Fauves in that his art of that period was not decorative.  Instead, it was passionately dedicated, as the art of the Fauves in the main was not, to pregnant social issues” (E.A. Jewell, Rouault, London, 1947, p. 8).

Rouault’s interest in the world of the circus found its greatest outlet in his art during the 1930s, at the time that Ambroise Vollard had commissioned him to make etchings and woodcuts for the book Cirque de l’étoile filante, published in 1938. These depictions were based on his own childhood memories of the circus, as he remembered, “Acrobats and horsewomen, sparkling or passive clowns, tightrope walkers and freaks, and my friends, color and harmony, since my earliest childhood I have been in love with you.” (quoted in B. Dorival and I. Rouault, Rouault, l’œuvre peint, Monte Carlo, 1988, vol. 1, p. 153)

As so often in his work, Rouault frames the present picture with his own painted border within the composition. He employs his typically rich palette and cloisonniste style, outlining the figures in black, like a stained glass window, ther🎀eby imparting a spiritual quality to the work. He first depicted clowns and the circus in the early 1910s, and the subject remained one of importance throughout 🌺his career.