il serait si doux d'aimer
1923
Medium
aquatint and drypoint over heliogravure
Classification
Portfolio
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1950.1.154
Art Historical Context
Georges Rouault's *il serait si doux daimer* (1923)—translating to "it would be so sweet to love"— a evocative print housed in the National Gallery of's Rosenwald Collection, of the museum's esteemed Department of Modern Prints and Drawings (CG-W). Created as an element within a portfolio classification, this work exemplifies Rouault's mastery of intaglio printmaking during the interwar period, a time when he transitioned from painting to deeply personal graphic series exploring human emotion and spirituality. The medium—aquatint and drypoint over heliogravure—blends photomechanical precision...
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...