ROPS, FELICIEN (1833-1898), Belgian painter, designer and engraver, was born at Namur, in Belgium, on July 7, 1833 ; he spent his childhood in that town, and afterwards in Brussels, where he composed in 1856, for his friends at the university, the Almanach Crocodilien, his first piece of work. He also brought out two Salons Illustres, and collaborated on the Crocodile, a magazine produced by the students. The humour shown in his contributions attracted the attention of publishers. He designed, among other things, frontispieces for Poulet-Malassis, and after wards for Gay and Douce. In 1859-60 he contributed some of his finest lithographs to a satirical journal in Brussels called Uylen spiegel. About 1862 he went to Paris and worked at Jacque mart's. He subsequently returned to Brussels, where he founded the short-lived International Society of Etchers. In 1865 he brought out his famous "Buveuse d'Absinthe," which placed him in the foremost rank of Belgian engravers; and in 1871 the "Dame au Pantin." After 1874 Rops resided in Paris. His talent was stimulated by travels in Hungary, Holland and Norway. He executed 600 original engravings enumerated in Ramiro's Cata logue of Rops' Engraved Work (Paris, Conquet, 1887), and i8o from lithographs (Ramiro's Catalogue of Rops' Lithographs, Paris, Conquet, 1891), besides a large number of oil-paintings in the manner of Courbet, and of pencil or pen-and-ink drawings, several very remarkable water-colour pictures, among which are "Le Scandale," 1876; "Une Attrapade," 1877 (now in the Brus sels Museum) ; a "Tentation de St. Antoine," 1878; and "Porno crates," 1878. From 188o to 1890 Rops devoted himself prin cipally to illustrating books : Les Rimes de joie, by Theo Hannon; Le Vice supreme and Curieuse, by J. Peladan; and Les Diabol
iques, by Barbey d'Aurevilly; L'Amante du Christ, by R. Darzens ; and Zadig, by Voltaire ; and the poems of Stephane Mallarme have frontispieces due to his fertile and powerful imagination. Before this he had illustrated the Legendes Flamandes, by Ch. de Coster; Jenne France, by Th. Gautier; and brought out a volume of Cent Croquis pour rejouir les Honnetes Gens. His last piece of work, an advertisement of an exhibition, was done in November 1896. Rops died on Aug. 23, 1898, at Essonnes, Seine et-Oise, on his estate, where he lived in complete retirement with his family. Rops joined the Art Society of the "XX.," formed at Brussels in 1884, as their revolutionary views were in harmony with the independence of his spirit. After his death, in 1899, the Libre Esthetique, which in 1894 had succeeded the "XX.," ar ranged a retrospective exhibition, which included about fifty paintings and drawings by Rops. His engraved work is the most important, both as to mastery of technique and originality of ideas. Hardly any artist of the 19th century equalled him in the use of the dry-point and soft varnish.
In 1896 La Plume (Paris) devoted a special number to this artist, fully illustrated. E. Deman, Brussels, brought out a volume in 1897 entitled Felicien Rops et son oeuvre—papers by various writers. We may also mention a study of Felicien Rops, by Eugene Demolder (Paris, 1894), and another by the same writer in Trois Contemporains 0900 ; Les Ropsiaques, by Pierre Gaume (London, 1898), and the notice by T. K. Huysmans in this volume called Certains. See also E. Romiro, Felicien Rops (1905).