Félicien ROPS (Namur 1833 - Corbeil-Essonnes 1898) - Lot 121

Félicien ROPS (Namur 1833 - Corbeil-Essonnes 1898) Le Cirque: rehearsal Watercolor over black pencil and a few highlights of gouache. Monogrammed lower right. Annotated on verso "Répétition". 23.5 x 16.5 cm Provenance: - Commissioned by Jules Noilly from Rops in 1878. - Former Jules Noilly collection, sold March 20, 1886 Jules Noilly, part of n°1046. - Former Edmond Picard collection, sold March 26, 1904, no. 111. Félicien Rops was fascinated by the circus. He wrote to Théo Hannon in 1879: "I was very unhappy when I was a large landowner, eligible and elector, and when the yellow and blue Saltimbanques who had come to juggle in the courtyard of Thozée disappeared over the horizon, my heart followed them to the vague countries and envied their fate". Rops returns to the theme of the circus several times in his lithographs. The artist captures the bewitching and sometimes dark atmosphere of this circus world. His lithographs reveal a fascination for the spectacle, the exoticism and the sometimes erotic side of life under the big top. For him, the circus is a metaphor for the human condition, providing fertile ground for his bold, provocative artistic expression. Through his lithographs, he explores the paradoxes of life, blending the beauty and darkness of this popular art form. Our watercolor is part of the famous suite of 114 drawings known as the Album des Cent légers croquis sans prétention pour réjouir les honnêtes gens. It is no. 40 in the 1998 catalog raisonné of this series, compiled by the Musée Rops, which was unable to locate our watercolor and had to reproduce the heliogravure enhanced with color à la poupée, of which it owns a copy. Our watercolor, titled Répétition on the reverse, appears in a first series of drawings sent by Rops on December 12, 1878 (no. 74 on the list) to Jules Noilly, the famous bibliophile. The series was sold after his death on March 20, 1886, in two albums. After this sale, the drawings were separated and sold individually. Our watercolor can be found in Edmond Picard's sale on March 26, 1904 under no. 111. We would like to thank Mr. Pascal de Sadeleer for the details he provided. We would like to thank Mr. Pascal de Sadeleer for the information he provided.