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Félicien Rops

1833 – 1898

L’Oliviérade by Félicien Rops
 

L’Oliviérade   1876

  Original etching and drypoint.
Signed and dated in the plate.
Ref: Exsteens 788 iii/vi; Rouir 973 iv/vii
S 457 x 335 mm; P 396 x 270 mm; I 360 x 246 mm
£525
 
Superb impression with the fresh drypoint burr printing rich and strong. A proof prior to the reduction of the plate and before the engraved lettering was added.

The Symbolist Belgian artist Félicien Rops was one of the earliest forerunners of Belle Époque art. Although most famous for his decadent and satanic imagery, the overriding motivation behind Félicien Rops’ art was his obsession with the beauty and sensuality of women. A wealthy and charming aristocrat, Félicien Rops came to Paris in 1862 to study etching with Bracquemond and Jacquemart, the founders of the new Société des Aquafortistes. Within six months he had been elected to their committee and within a year had replaced Daubigny on its jury. In the early 1870’s he founded the Société Internationale des Aquafortistes in his native Belgium.

Félicien Rops did not confine his view of sensual beauty to the fashionable ladies of the cities; to Rops eroticism could be found just as clearly in a peasant worker, often in the most mundane situations. L’Oliviérade is a brilliant example of the artist’s ability to express this form of sensuality in an etched image.

On fine laid paper with full margins. Very fine condition.