Illustration of 'Les Diaboliques' 1882

Editor: So, this is Felicien Rops' "Illustration of 'Les Diaboliques'," made with ink and pencil on paper around 1882. It's... striking. The almost ghostly figure looming over the falling nude, it gives me this feeling of impending doom. What do you see in this piece? Curator: Doom, you say? I like that. For me, it whispers of secrets, those little anxieties we try to bury under the rug. Rops, he wasn't afraid to get down and dirty with the stuff polite society preferred to ignore. Notice how the shadowy man lurking on the left seems to be 'unveiling' the body? Almost as if desire is this secret shame that has been hiding. Tell me, what do you make of those ghostly hands reaching out from the darkness on the lower left? Editor: They seem… desperate. Like whatever's lurking there is consumed by this dark desire, unable to really grasp what it wants. Curator: Exactly! Think about the symbolism—the falling figure, the lurking man, those grasping hands... it's like a fever dream about forbidden desires and the dark side of beauty. What's interesting is Rops was illustrating a collection of poetry here, so the images aren't completely born of his imagination, but they still are a reaction to those words that came before. Does knowing that change how you see it? Editor: Definitely. Knowing it’s illustrating a text, it feels less random, more deliberate. Like the picture is trying to tell a story already in motion. Curator: And aren't those the best kinds of images? Ones that spark your imagination but also hint at a deeper narrative? Perhaps those are the stories we tell ourselves, and *those* stories... now that’s the real hidden desire, the narrative for what our lives should be. Editor: Absolutely! It’s made me rethink the piece as a tableau, like a scene pulled right out of someone's head. Curator: Wonderful! Art’s always better when you leave thinking and dreaming differently.