Rops, Felicien Joseph Victor

(7/7/1833 Namur- 8/22/1898 Essonnes) (Belgium)

   Painter, etcher, lithographer, draughtsman, caricaturist, and illustrator. Studied at the University of Brussels. A major figure in the Symbolist art movement, his work is among the most explicitly sexual of his contemporaries. The themes of the prostitute, the ravaging female, death, the Satanic, sex, and Christian religion are combined and re-combined in many of his works.

   Reproductions: Abus de confiance; Neret, 2000: p. 217 . Amours prehistoriques; c1878; Neret, 2000: p. 226 . Bourgeoisie; Melville, 1973: fig. 180 [B]. The crucifix; Brusendorff, 1960b: p. 66 [B]. Darwinique no. 2 ou transformisme no. 2; c1870; Neret, 2000: p. 226 [B]. [Devil with half naked sleeping woman]; etching; Hill, 1992: p. 40 [C]. Diaboliques; c1880; etching; Klinger, 1984a: figs. 1392-1399 [B]. Dinner of the Atheist; 1879; pencil; Brusendorff, 1960c: p. 66 [B] / Erotic drawings, 2004: p. 69 [C]. En visite [lesbian scene]; Neret, 2000: p. 215 [B]. End- piece for Tableaux des Moeurs du Temps, vol. 2; Grimley, 1973: fig. 58 [B]. [Female lovers]; Hur-wood, 1975: p. 11 [B]. Frontispiece for Gamiani by Alfred de Musset; 1864; Neret, 2000: p. 209 [C]. Frontispiece for Joyeusettes Galante du Vidame de la Braguette; 1865; Grimley, 1973: fig. 54 [B]. Frontispiece for L'Initiation sentimentale by J. Peladan; 1887: Neret, 2000: p. 237 [C]. Frontispiece for Les Gaietes de Beranger; 1864; Grimley, 1973: fig. 55 [B]. Frontispiece for Point de Lendemain; 1867; Grimley, 1973: fig. 56 [B]. Frontispiece for Quatre Petits Poemes Libertins; 1864; Grimley, 1973: fig. 59 [B] / Klinger, 1982b: p. 189 [B]. Frontispiece for the tragicomedy Serre Fesse; Neret, 2000: p. 207 [B]. Gaiete hermaphrodite; c1878; Neret, 2000: p. 231 [C]. Haisne et Amour de preste sont mesme Viol; c1878; charcoal, India ink wash and pastel; Erotic drawings, 2004: p. 65 [C]. Heart in hand; Melville, 1973: fig. 130 [B]. Illustration from Serre Fesse [a woman is entered by a large wheeled phallus]; Neret, 2000: p. 212 [B]. Illustration to Honore de Balzac; Neret, 2000: pp. 221 [B]. Illustration to Lupanie, Histoire Amoureuse de ce Temps; 1867; Grimley, 1973: fig. 53 [B]. Illustrations to Die Lesbierinnen; Klinger, 1982b: pp. 190-191 [B]. Impudence; c1878; colored pencil; Neret, 2000: p. 220 [B] / Erotic drawings, 2004: p. 67 [C]. The incantation [detail]; c1878; Neret, 2000: p. 6 [C]. [Ithyphallic king]; c1890; etching; Dopp, 2004: p. 153 [B]. L'agonie ou mors et vita ou Sainte Therese; Neret, 2000: p. 236 [C]. L'enlevement [a demon uses a broom handle as a dildo on a woman]; 1882-1883; Neret, 2000: p. 202 [C]. L'idole; etching; Neret, 2000: p. 232 [B] / Bentley, 1984: p. 122 [B]. La belle et la bete; Neret, 2000: p. 211 [B]. La coeur sur la main [woman exposing herself]; Neret, 2000: p. 226 [B]. La dame aux bulles [female satyr blows on a phallus]; Neret, 2000: p. 229 [C]. La fleur lascive; 1880; etching; Klinger, 1984a: fig. 1390 [B]. La mort qui danse; 1865; Neret, 2000: p. 234 [C]. La plus belle fille du monde ne peut donner que ce qu'elle...; Neret, 2000: pp. 224-225 [C]. La vigne du cure; Neret, 2000: p. 222 [B]. La Vrille [woman climbs the enormous phallus of a satyr]; Neret, 2000: p. 228 [B]. Le beau paon; Neret, 2000: p. 233 [B]. Le coeur sur la main; Dopp, 2004: p. 152 [B]. Le droit au repos [walking, dressed erect male genitalia]; Neret, 2000: pp. 204, 205 [B]. Le joyeux bidet; Neret, 2000: p. 219 [B]. Le Luxure ou le Pilori; Neret, 2000: p. 208 [C]. Le velocipede; Neret, 2000: p. 213 [B]. Les sataniques I; 1884; Webb, 1975: p. 181 [B]. Les sataniques II; 1884; Webb, 1975: p. 181 [B]. Les sataniques III; 1884; Webb, 1975: p. 181 [B]. [Lesbians]; Hill, 1996: p. 71 [B]. Little cousin; etching; Bentley, 1984: p. 123 [B]. Luxury; charcoal; Klinger, 1982b: p. 188 [B]. [Man copulating with a pig]; Orgies, 1969: p. 91 [B]. Mary Magdalene; c1885; Webb, 1975: p. 182 [B]. Monsters or Genesis; Lucie-Smith, 1972: p. 143 [B]. My daughter, Monsieur Cavanel!; Brusendorff, 1960b: p. 65 [B]. Naturalia, ad majorem diaboli gloriam; c1875; Neret, 2000: p. 235 [C]. Nubility; etching; Bentley, 1984: p. 122 [B]. On the embankment; Brusendorff, 1960b: p. 64 [B]. Parnasse satirique; lithograph; Kronhuasen, 1970c: p. 23 [B]. [Portfolio of erotic works]; 1880; Klinger, 1984b: figs. 1944-1965 [B]. [Portrait of a prostitute]; Lorenzoni, 1984b: p. 77 [C]. [Royal figure with crowned phallus]; lithograph; Kronhuasen, 1970c: p. 19 [B]. Saint Augustin; Neret, 2000: p. 223 [B]. Saint Marie Madeleine; Klinger, 1982b: p. 189 [B] / Neret, 2000: p. 233 [B]. Sans flesse; dry-point; Philips, 1979: fig. 255 [B]. [Satyr and woman]; lithograph; Kronhuasen, 1970c: p. 20 [B]. [Satyrs pleasuring themselves]; lithograph; Kron-huasen, 1970c: p. 21 [B]. Serre Fesse; engraving; Kronhausen, 1968: p. 103 [B]. St Teresa [nun using a dildo on herself]; Neret, 2000: p. 203 [B]. Street corner; Melville, 1973: fig. 140 [B]. Suffisance [woman fondles herself]; Neret, 2000: p. 215 [B]. Therese philosophe ou vocation religieuse; Neret, 2000: p. 233 [B]. Tres insaturabilia; 1879; lithograph; Kronhuasen, 1970c: p. 22 [B]. Two friends; c1888-1890; watercolor; Erotic drawings, 2004: p. 113 [C]. [Two women in love play]; engraving; Kro-nhausen, 1973: p. 23 [B]. Un groom pour tout faire; Neret, 2000: p. 210 [B]. Une diner d'athees; 1880; etching; Klinger, 1984a: fig. 1391 [B]. The visit [lesbians sitting on chair engaged in foreplay]; Nash, 1995: p. 137 [C]. [Woman in armor fondling priapic sculpture]; Kronhausen, 1968: p. 103 [B]. Woman on a rocking horse; Lucie-Smith 1997: p. 179 [C]. [Woman struggling with multi-phallic creature]; lithograph; Kronhuasen, 1970c: p. 21 [B]. [Young and old phalli]; lithograph; Kronhuasen, 1970c: p. 20 [B].

   [b]Source: Patrick Bade, Felicien Rops (New York: Parkstone Press, 2003); Benezit, vol. 11: pp. 1350-1353; Charles Brison, Pornocrates, an introduction to the life and work of Felicien Rops 1833-1898 (London: Charles Skilton, 1969); Bernard Denvir, "The lust for lust," Art and Artists 11, 11 (March 1977): pp. 20-26; DoA vol. 27: pp. 139-141; "Felicien Rops: sex and symbols," in Pornography in fine art from ancient times up to the present, by Gerhard Poul (S.l.: Elysium, c1969); Joris-Karl Huysmans, "L'Oeuvre erotique de F. Rops," La Plume 172 (June 15, 1896): pp. 388-401; L'erotisme: quelques scenes de Rops (Brussels: Le Cri, 1994); Sabine Makein, "Die Gestalt der damonis-chen Frau im Werk von Felicien Rops: Ikonographie und Ikonologie" (Ph.D. dissertation, Westfalsiche Wilhelms-Universitat zu Munster, 1991), 503 p., ill.; Leo van Maris, Felicien Rops: over kunst, melancholie en perversiteit (Amsterdam: Arbeiderpers, 1982); J. Meert, Felicien Rops: l'oeuvre grave erotique (Antwerp: Loempia, 1986); Felicien Victor Joseph Rops, Das erotische Werk des Felicien Rops (Privately Printed, 1905): 31-78; ThB XXVIII 1934: p. 587.