Circus of the Shooting Star

Georges Rouault’s colorful etchings in this book combine heavy black outlines with areas of luminous color that glow like stained glass windows. They illustrate clowns, ballerinas, and other assorted circus performers, bearing names like Tristes Os (Weary Bones), Amer Citron (Bitter Lemon), and Douce-amère (Bitter-sweet).

Like many western European artists at this time, Rouault loved the circus, depicting performers frequently in his works. He was especially drawn to clowns, seeing them as symbols of human suffering and playing up the contrasts of their humorous performances with what he viewed as their private sadness. In this work, he strove to give them dignity, illustrating even the elderly clowns as proud and youthful. This impressive artist’s book was written and illustrated by Rouault himself, with 17 color etchings and 80 smaller black-and-white wood engravings interspersed throughout.