Ma Tante Johanna (My aunt Johanna)

item details

NameMa Tante Johanna (My aunt Johanna)

ProductionFélicien Rops; illustrator; 1874

Classificationprints, etchings, works on paper

Materialspaper

Materials Summaryetching and aquatint

Techniquesetching, aquatint

DimensionsImage: 127mm (width), 165mm (height)

Registration Number1971-0012-42

Credit lineGift of Sir John Ilott, 1971

Overview

Felicien Rops (1833-1898) was one of the most infamous artists of the mid to late nineteenth century. A major figure in the Belgian avant-garde, his decadent, often erotic vision took Paris by storm when he moved there in the 1860s and he counted Charles Baudelaire amongst his early admirers.

This etching was originally published in the supplement to the 1874 L'Art Universel, a perodical published in Rops's native Belgium. It depicts his elderly aunt of the title, who appears toothless and is gazing downwards, huddled in a chair, next door to a large kettle. A proper, bourgeois and even slightly tender portrait, it gives little hint of Rops's erotic or satanic preoccupations, even if Johanna could appear to be a benign witch. In retropect, it is no surprise that Sir John Ilott was less than keen on this notorious aspect of Rops's oeuvre.

Dr Mark Stocker Curator, Historical International Art May 2018