Untitled (La femme à la toque écossaise)
1895
Medium
etching and aquatint in black on green japan paper
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Virginia and Ira Jackson Collection, gift in memory of Virginia H. Jackson
Accession Number
1996.151.218
Art Historical Context
Félicien Rops, a Belgian Symbolist artist renowned for his provocative and decadent imagery, created *Untitled (La femme à toque écossaise)* 1895, near the end of his prolific career. This print captures the fin-de-siècle fascination with sensuality and exoticism, likely portraying a woman adorned in a Scottish toque—a fur-trimmed hat evoking both elegance and allure. Rops a master printmaker influenced by the erotic poetry of Charles Baudelaire, often blended beauty with the macabre, reflecting the cultural tensions of late 19th-century Europe amid industrialization and moral upheaval. The w...
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...