Félicien Rops - Sketches

Museums of Namur | Félicien Rops Museum | Exhibition | Guided tour

"Cent légers croquis sans prétention pour réjouir les honnêtes gens" (One hundred light-weight unpretentious sketches to please decent people)

The Parisian booklover and collector Alfred Noilly commissioned Rops in 1878 to produce this series of 100 sketches. The last drawings were to be completed in 1881 and the collection comprised 112 pieces. Each drawing was completed with great care which Rops described as "colour fast but very delicate to the touch... the tempera which I use plays a very important role in these drawings."

La toilette à Cythère (Cythera's toilette)

The principle laid down by Noilly was "to represent all women of the era" Such an idea could only appeal to Rops, "obsessed" by the Woman who was his symbol for the aesthetic turn of the century. Demi-mondaines in their boudoirs, courtisans, grisettes , prostitutes, monks and novices, bawdy entertainers, men and women bathing... bring this album to life, exceptional for its size, for its technical quality and for the originality of the approach.

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