Félicien Joseph Victor Rops, 1833-1898
Nationality: Belgian
Date of Birth: 7 July 1833
Place of Birth: Namur
Place of Death: Essones
Identity:
Félicien Joseph Victor Rops was a watercolourist, caricaturist and printmaker.
Life:
He studied at the Académie de Saint-Luc in Brussels and learnt lithography. Influenced by Gavarni and Daumier, he took to political caricature and satires of middle-class life and his work began to appear regularly in the magazine Uylenspiegel.
From 1862 he focussed increasingly on etching, having worked in Paris with Félix Bracquemond and Jules Jacquemart, two of the foremost practitioners of the day. Thereafter he lived between Brussels and Paris where he knew Baudelaire, designing the frontspiece for Baudelaire's volume of poetry Les Epaves (1866). He also became concerned with the modern life subjects for which he is particularly remembered, along with his innovative technical approach to printmaking.
Bibliography:
Bénézit, E., Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, 8 vols, 1956-61; Hoffmann, E., 'Félicien (Joseph Victor) Rops,' Grove Dictionary of Art Online, http://www.groveart.com (accessed August 2004).