Modernity
1883
Medium
Drypoint on cream wove paper
Dimensions
Image: 18.9 × 12.9 cm (7 1/2 × 5 1/8 in.); Plate: 20 × 13.8 cm (7 7/8 × 5 7/16 in.); Sheet, folded: 44.4 × 34.8 cm (17 1/2 × 13 3/4 in.)
Classification
drypoint
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
51489
Art Historical Context
Félicien Rops' *Modernity* (1883) is a striking drypoint print that captures the artist's provocative gaze on fin-de-siècle society. Created on cream wove paper, intimate work measures just 18.9 × 12.9 cm for the image, inviting close contemplation in the Art Institute of Chicago's Prints and Drawings. Rops, a artist (1833–1898) renowned for his Symbolist and Decadent sensibilities, often infused his art with satire, eroticism, and a critique of modern vices, blending the macabre with the mundane. Drypoint technique shines here: Rops scratched directly into the copper plate with a sharp needl...
About the Artist
Félicien Rops · 1833–1898
Félicien Rops, born Félicien Victor Joseph Rops on July 7, 1833, in Namur, Belgium, to a prosperous textile manufacturing family, displayed prodigious artistic talent from youth. The only child of Nicholas Rops and Sophie Maubile, he received private tutoring until age ten, followed by education at a Jesuit school in Namur (1843–1848), the Athénée Royal de Namur, and the Academy of Fine Arts there...