Satan III 1925 - 1927

Georges Rouault made this dark and brooding print, Satan III, using aquatint. Imagine him inking and wiping the plate, the acid biting into the metal, each stage a gamble. I can almost feel Rouault’s hand moving, pushing that ink around, coaxing light from the shadows. Look at the heavy outlines, the way they trap the light, how the face seems to emerge from the darkness, grotesque, yet somehow human. Was he thinking about good and evil? About the darkness we all carry inside ourselves? There's a raw honesty in Rouault's work, a willingness to confront the uncomfortable aspects of human experience. Like Goya, he wasn't afraid to show us the ugly side of things. It’s that honesty, that vulnerability, that makes his work so powerful. I think artists are always in conversation with each other, across time. They see something in each other’s work, and it sparks something new.