Modernité 1850 - 1950

This etching by Félicien Rops, whose title translates as ‘Modernity,’ presents us with a fashionable woman carrying a severed head on a platter. It's rendered in the style of a quick sketch, typical of late 19th-century printmaking. Made in Belgium, it reflects the anxieties of a rapidly changing society, with the rise of capitalism and the blurring of traditional social boundaries. The woman, adorned in the latest fashions, may represent the modern woman, while the head on a platter has the word ‘Academie’ inscribed, so symbolizes the decline of traditional academic values. Rops was part of a wider movement of artists and writers who critiqued the established order, so we need to understand his wider social milieu. Through careful attention to such social and institutional contexts, we can better understand what this challenging artwork might mean.