L'Examen

1890. Heliogravure on light weight Japan paper, 12 x 8 inches (304 x 202 mm), full margins. Titled in pencil in the lower right margin. In good condition with some minor handling creases, dog-eared lower right corner, and adhesive residue at the top right and left corners on the verso. Non archival auction sticker (appx 1"x1") on the top right corner on the verso, along with framer's notations in pencil. All condition issues fall well outside of the image area. An impression of this work may be found in the permanent collection of the Musée Félicien Rops, Namur.

[Revens 157]. In effort to keep her repeat clientele safe and happy, we see a madam performing a regular examination on one of her brothel workers. Likely the madam is looking for the signs of syphilis, the early signs of which would present as a rosy colored rash on the hands, arms, and thighs, among other places.

Félicien Victor Joseph Rops (7 July 1833 - 23 August 1898) was a Belgian artist associated with Symbolism and the Parisian Fin-de Siecle. He was a painter, illustrator, caricaturist and a prolific and innovative print maker, particularly in intaglio (etching and aquatint). Although not well known to the general public, Rops was greatly respected by his peers and actively pursued and celebrated as an illustrator by the publishers, authors, and poets of his time. He provided frontispieces and illustrations for Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly, Charles Baudelaire, Charles De Coster, Théophile Gautier, Joris-Karl Huysmans, Stéphane Mallarmé, Joséphin Péladan, Paul Verlaine, Voltaire, and many others. Best known today for his prints and drawings illustrating erotic and occult literature of the period, he also produced oil paintings including landscapes, seascapes, and occasional genre paintings.