Sexuality, eroticism and obsession lie at the heart of an art that resists moral appeasement. Félicien Rops. Laboratory of Lust presents a body of work that challenges conventions, exposes bourgeois hypocrisy and continues to provoke today.

Félicien Rops’ demonic-erotic imagery ranks among the most radical positions of the fin de siècle. His works deliberately opposed bourgeois morality and exposed its hypocrisy through irony, provocation and graphic precision. While celebrated as a book illustrator collaborating with literary outsiders such as Charles Baudelaire and Stéphane Mallarmé, Rops simultaneously developed a private body of work deliberately withdrawn from public view. In drawings and prints, he pushed the gender stereotypes of his era to the extreme and challenged prevailing social norms.

Developed in close cooperation with the Royal Library of Belgium (KBR), the exhibition presents around 70 works from international collections, including numerous works from the KBR as well as key pieces from the Musée Félicien Rops, the Musée Marmottan Monet and the Musée d’Orsay. The exhibition is conceived and curated by Jonas Beyer (Kunsthaus Zurich) and Daan van Heesch (KBR).

“I have only one quality: an ideal despised by the public, and some of my sheets are nothing more than an attempt to bring my backside up to the audience’s facial level.” – Félicien Rops

The Temptation of Saint Anthony, 1878, Félicien Rops. Photograph: Royal Library of Belgium (KBR), Brussels.