Georges Rouault. 1871-1958.
Miserere et Guerre.
This unique set was Rouault's personal working copy of the set, containing his annotations and changes regarding the titles and order of the prints in the series. The writing on the top margin of plate I: "Toutes légendes ici marquées en mai 1939..."
That would date the revisions right around the time (end of May, beginning of June 1939) when Rouault and Suarès were meeting together to coordinate Rouault finalizing titles or legends and Suarès the texts he was due to write for the book(s) two of them, one "Guerre" and one "Miserere". See letters 249, 250 and 251 in Rouault-Suarès published correspondence: on May 31st 1939, Rouault writes "je vais mettre titres ou légendes"... Unfortunately Vollard died a few weeks later and the project was terminated abruptly.
Miserere et Guerre was acquired by Father Andres Kelly for the Catholic Lending Library of Hartford via Rouault's New York agent, Kleeman Galleries in 1948. The purchase price was $5,000, which was a very considerable sum at the time.D
The series was exhibited at the Morgan Memorial Museum in Hartford in April and May, 1949. Subsequently it was exhibited at Yale in New Haven.
This unique set was used to illustrate the book by Frank and Dorothy, George Rouault's Miserere (Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Company, 1964).
Click on the images for larger images. The large image files are hyperlinked.
Plate 1. Miserere mei, Deus, secundum magnam misericordiam tuam. Psalms 51:1. (Have mercy on me, God, according to Thy great mercy.)
Plate 2. Jésus honni... (Jesus reviled...)
Plate 3. toujours flagell... (eternally scourged...)
Plate 4. se réfugie en ton coeur, va-nu-pieds de malheur... (seek refuge in your heart, poor wanderer...)
Plate 5. Solitaire, en cette vie d'embûches et de malices. (Alone in this life of snares and malice.)
Plate 6. Ne sommes-nous forçats? (Are we not convicts?)
Plate 7. nous croyons rois. (we believe ourselves kings.)
Plate 8. Qui ne se grime pas? (Who does not wear a mask?)
The pastel hand coloring is not by Rouault.
Plate 9. Il arrive parfois que la route soit belle... (It happens, sometimes, that the way is beautiful...")
Plate 10. au vieux faubourg des Longues Peines. (in the old district of Long Suffering.)
Plate 11. Demain sera beau, disait lenauf ragé. (Tomorrow will be beautiful, said the shipwrecked man.)
Plate 12. Le dur métier de vivre.... (It is hard to live...)
Plate 13. Il serait si soux d'aimer. (It would be so sweet to love.)
Plate 14. Fille dite de joy. (They call her daughter of joy.)
Plate 15. En buouche qui fut fraîhe, gôut de fiel. (On lips that were fresh, the taste of gall.)
Plate 16. Dame du Haute-Quartier, crois prendre pour le Ciel place réservée. (The well-bred lady thinks she has a reserved seat in Heaven.)
Plate 17. Femme affranchie, à quartorze heures, chante midi. (Emancipated woman, at two o'clock cries noon.)
Plate 18. Le condamné est allé... (The condemned man went away...)
Plate 19. son avocat, en phrases creuses, clame sa totale inconscience... (his lawyer, in empty phrases, proclaims his total ignorance...)
Plate 20. sous un Jésus encroix oublié là. (under a Jesus forgotten on a cross.)
Plate 21. "Il a été maltraité et opprimé et il n'a pas ouvert la bouche." Isaiah 53:7. ("He has been maltreated and oppressed and he has not opened his mouth.")
Plate 22. En tant d'ordres divers, le beau métier d'ensemencer une terre hostile. (In so many different ways, the beautiful calling of sowing a hostile earth.)
Plate 23. "Rue des Solitaires." (Lonely Street.)
Plate 24. "Hiver lèpre de la terre." ("Winter, earth's leper.")
Plate 25. Jean-François jamais ne chante alleluia... (Jean-François never sings alleluia...)
Plate 26. au pays de la soif et de la peur. (in the land of thirst and fear.)
Plate 27. "Sunt lacrymae rerum..." Virgil, Aeneid I. ("There are tears in things...")
Plate 28. "Celui qui croit en moi, fût-il mort, vivra." John 11:25. ("He who believes in Me, though he be dead, shall live.")
Plate 29. Chantez Matines, le jour renâit. (Sing Matins, day is reborn.)
Plate 30. "Nous...c'est en sa mort que nous avons été baptisés." Romans 6:3. ("We...it is in His death that we have been baptized.")
Plate 31. "Aimes-vous les uns les autres." John 13:34. ("Love one another.")
Plate 32. Seigneur, c'est vous, je vous reconnais. (Lord, it is You. I know You.)
Plate 33. "et Véronique au tendre lin passe encore sur le chemin..." (and Veronica, with her gentle cloth, still passes on the way.)
Guerre.
Plate 34. "Les ruines elles-mêmes ont péri." Lucian, Pharcale IC, 969." (Even the ruins have been destroyed.)
Plate 35. "Jéus sera en agonie jusqu'à la fin du monde...." Pascal, Pensées (Jesus will be in agony until the end of the world.)
Plate 36. Ce sera la dernière, petit père. (This will be the last time, dear father!)
Plate 37. "Homo homini lupus." Plautus, Asinaria II, 4, 88. ("Man is wolf to man.")
Plate 38. Chinois inventa, dit-on, la poudre à canon, noue en fit don. (The Chinese, they say, invented gunpowder, made us a gift of it.)
Plate 39. Nous sommes fous. (We are mad.)
Plate 40. Face à face.... (Face to face...)
Plate 41. Augures... (Omens.)
Plate 42. "Bella matribus detestata." Horace, Odes I, 1, 24-25. ("War, hated by mothers.")
Plate 43. "Nous devons mourir, nous et tout ce qui est nôtre." Horace, Ars Poetica, 63. ("We must die, we and all that is ours.")
Plate 44. "Mon doux pays, où êtes vous?" ("My sweet country, where are you?")
Plate 45. "Le mort l'a pris comme il sortait du lit d'orties." ("Death took him as he rose from his bed of nettles.")
Plate 46. "Le juste, comme le bois de santal, parfume la hache qui la frappe." ("The just man, like sandalwood, perfumes the blade that cuts him down.")
Plate 47. "De profundis..." Psalms 129.1. ("Out of the depths.")
Plate 48. Au pressoir, le raisin fut foulé. (In the wine-press, the grape was crushed.)
Plate 49."Plus le coeur est noble, moins le col est roide." ("The more noble the heart, the less stiff the neck.")
Plate 50. "Des ongles et du bec..." Guillaume de Salluste, 1st week, 2nd day. ("With nails and beak...")
Plate 51. Loin du sourire de Reims. (Far from the smile of Rheims.)
Plate 52. Dura lex sed lex. (The law is hard, but it is the law.)
Plate 53. Vierge au sept glaives. (Virgin of the Seven Swords.)
Plate 54. "Debout les morts!" (Arise, you dead!)
Plate 55. L'avegule parfois a consolé le voyant. (Sometimes a blind man has consoled the seeing.)
Plate 56. En ces temps noirs de jactance et d'incroyance, Notre-Dame de la Fin des Terres vigilante. (In these dark times of vanity and unbelief, Our Lady of Land's End keeps watch.)
Plate 57. "Obéissant jusqu'&à la morte et à la morte de la croix." (Phillippians 2.8). ("Obedient unto death, and to death on the cross.")
Plate 58. "C'est par ses meurtrissures quo nous sommes guéris." Isaiah 53.5. ("It is by His wounds that we are healed.")
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