Rops, Félicien

Rops, Félicien (b Namur, 7 July 1833; d Essonnes [Corbeil-Essonnes], 23 Aug. 1898). Belgian printmaker (and occasional painter), active mainly in Paris (he settled at Essonnes, a few miles south of the city, in 1874). Rops was a friend of Baudelaire, who helped to launch him in the Paris art world, and in his work he similarly showed a fascination with evil and vice, and particularly with the idea of woman as a corrupter of man. He was greatly admired by Symbolist writers and much of his output was done as illustrations to esoteric and erotic literature. Some of his work is frankly pornographic or blasphemous (for example, he showed Mary Magdalene masturbating at the foot of the cross), but in spite of his disdain for conventional morals, he became famous and successful. Technically he was one of the most resourceful printmakers of his period, mixing different techniques (such as aquatint with mezzotint) and experimenting with various types of acids and varnishes. In 1886 he became a member of the avant-garde Brussels group Les Vingt and his work was notably influential on Ensor.