Uylenspiegel

Museums of Namur | Félicien Rops Museum | Guided tour

The weekly publication "Ulyenspiegel", a newspaper of literary and artistic frolics.

Rops founded this newspaper in 1856. Where did the name "Ulyenspiegel" come from? The latter is a legendary character, a compatriot of Rops, he is well known and liked and belongs in literature to satiric legend. Uylenspiegel, this national hero was simultaneously a spy, an adventurer but also the spirit of liberty and justice. His personality is in keeping with the objectives of the newspaper.

Politics, the customs of the time, morale, fine art, literature are all examined closely.

Rops is the caricaturist of the magazine: politicians, artists, contemporaries, ... are sketched with bite and precision. The influences of his teachers, Daumier and Gavarni, are to be felt in the nervousness of the touch combined with a desire to fuse with the character of the subject.

In la Galerie d'Uylenspiegel (the Uylenspiegel Hall of Fame), all the big misshapen heads of artists, photographers, musicians and entertainers are on display. Here we have Nadar, a famous Parisian photographer, aeronaut, drawer, writer and friend of Rops.

The magazine closed in 1863.

Bernadette Bonnier
Last modified: Fri Mar 22 12:25:49 MET 1996