FELICIEN ROPS
1833 Namur – 1898 Corbeil-Essonnes
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Tête de maraîchère anversoise [Head of an Antwerp vegetable seller] – c.1870
Etching and soft varnish on imitation Japon. Signed in red pencil. 1st state before additions by Louis Legrand. Size of sheet: 43 x 31 cm.
ER 845.1; Exsteens: 310; Ramiro: 136; Mascha: 682.
Provenance: Collection of Baron Le Barbier de Tinan (1845-1918) (Lugt 1771) ;Collection of Jean-Pierre Babut de Marès (collector’s stamp).
After the draw of a few tests, the free surface around the head was covered by Louis Legrand, a student of Rops, of sketches with soft varnish of various heads and figures. So only two or three proofs were printed before additional figures were added. Rare.
Felicien Rops: Tête de maraîchère anversoise
Painter, printmaker, and illustrator, Rops was active in both his native Belgium and in France, where he moved in 1874; his vast and varied output included landscapes, portraits, and, above all, representations of modern life, often caustic and disconcertingly frank. A leading figure of the Belgian avant-garde, he is perhaps best known for his etchings and book illustrations of the 1870s and 1880s which, with their heady mixture of erotic and macabre imagery, make him one of the great figures of the late 19th-century Decadent Movement.