Felicien rops biography sample
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About 1862 he went to Paris and worked at Jacquemarts. His libertine life and scandalous and erotic subjects made him infamous in his own lifetime.
Rops's eyesight began to fail in 1892. Rops’ illustrations for Baudelaire’s famous work, “Les Épaves,” solidified his reputation as an artist unafraid to explore the taboo and the mysterious.
In 1865, Rops co-founded the Société Libre des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, a progressive art society that aimed to challenge traditional norms and foster avant-garde expressions.
Critics described him as a “sarcastic Satan,” clothed in flamboyant attire and armed with a pen that pierced social norms.
Beyond Decadence
Rops’ influence reached far beyond the Symbolist movement. After his death, in 1899, the Libre Esthetique, which in 1894 had succeeded the "XX.," arranged a retrospective exhibition, which included about fifty paintings and drawings by Rops.
He was closely associated with the literary movement of ‘Symbolism and Decadence.’ Rops became best known for his printmaking.
Rops often combined soft-ground etching—a technique practiced by few artists of his day often adding mezzotint or aquatint, and sometimes adding hand-coloring to his plates. Rops produced a number of etchings as illustrations for childrens books by C.
de Coster. The fusion of word and image in Rops’ illustrations added layers of complexity to his work, contributing to the multifaceted nature of Symbolist expression.
Running towards Taboos
Despite the avant-garde nature of his art, Rops faced occasional censorship and criticism from conservative quarters. He was praised for transcending obscenity to explore deeper truths about human desire and hypocrisy.
His innovative prints inspired generations of artists, including the Surrealists and early comic illustrators.
Rops died on the 23rd of August 1898, at Essonnes, Seine-et-Oise, on the estate he had purchased, where he lived in complete retirement with his family. Félicien Rops was a freemason and a member of the Grand Orient of Belgium. At age 20 Felician moved to Brussels, where he attended the Académie de Saint-Luc and began creating satirical lithographs which were published in the student magazine Le Crocodile and he became locally famous as a caricaturist.
His unapologetic approach to themes considered taboo in the 19th century underscored his commitment to pushing the boundaries of artistic expression.
The latter part of Rops’ life saw a return to Namur, where he continued his artistic endeavors while also engaging in philanthropy and supporting local cultural initiatives.
After meeting Baudelaire’s publisher, Auguste Poulet-Malassis, Rops illustrated censored poems from Les Fleurs du mal and created the frontispiece for Les Épaves.
From 1880 to 1890 he devoted himself principally to illustrating books: Les Rimes de joie, by Tho Hannon; Le Vice supreme and Curieuse, by J.
Pladan; and Les Diaboliques, by Barbey d'Aurvilly; L'Amante du Christ, by R. Darzens; and Zadig, by Voltaire; and the poems of St�phane Mallarm� have frontispieces due to his fertile and powerful imagination. His activity as a lithographer ceased about 1865, and he became a restless experimenter with etching techniques. Most of these have been engraved and printed in colors by Bertrand.
Rops married in 1857 and had two children, one of which died in childhood.