Modernity 1883

Felicien Rops's *Modernity* (1883) is a satirical etching that depicts a woman in a fashionable dress holding a platter with a severed head on it. The image is a commentary on the superficiality of modern society and the pursuit of beauty and status over substance. Rops, known for his provocative and often controversial imagery, uses the grotesque and the sublime to create a powerful and unsettling visual statement. The Art Institute of Chicago houses this etching, a testament to Rops's enduring influence on 19th-century art.