One Hundred Unpretentious Sketches for the Pleasure of Decent People or One Hundred Simple Sketches for the Delight of Honest People (French: Cent légers croquis sans prétention pour réjouir les honnêtes gens) is an artistic cycle created by the Belgian painter Félicien Rops between 1878 and 1881. The cycle consists of one hundred and twelve drawings divided into two albums. The albums were bound in saffron red leather by the famous Second Empire bookbinder Maurius Michel (1846-1925).
The origin of the cycle
The work was commissioned by Jules Noilly, a French bibliophile and admirer of Rops' works. Rops created individual sheets using a combination of pastel techniques "Pastel (technique)"), colored pencil, gouache, chalk and watercolor. The central motif is the semi-naked female bodies, provocative for their strangeness and sexual exceptionality. The intention of both Rops and Noilly was to parody and mock the hypocrisy of bourgeois society. The albums always consist of a main frontispiece "Frontispiece (part of the book)"), a postscript and ten frontispieces "Frontispiece (part of the book)"), one frontispiece for each series of ten drawings. The work is an attempt to treasure the typology of a modern woman who uses her sexuality to penetrate the world of men and dominate that world.
Description of some parts
The main frontispiece is titled Rops in his studio with a model (Rops dans son atelier avec son modèle) from 1878. The self-portrait shows the artist smoking a cigarette and examining his model. The woman saves her clothes to inspire the painter. Rops also used a similar motif of an almost naked woman on the sheet The librarian (La bibliothécaire). A naked woman lies on the bed with her back to the viewer, reading morally objectionable literature; The Devil, with a sinister smile, has just emerged from his hiding place behind the curtain and offers the woman another immoral reading. Censored or erotic literature was banned in the 19th century. Here the painter points out the pleasure and exciting joy of such reading. The same motif is repeated in the cake "Pastel (technique)") . Here, a prostitute examines her naked body in the mirror while a mature man lustfully watches her through the half-open door. Using the mirror, Rops achieved a double effect: the magic of female eroticism in front of the mirror, and through the older man's reflection, ruthlessly showing the woman's future destiny.
Frontispiece revision
Introduction
One Hundred Unpretentious Sketches for the Pleasure of Decent People or One Hundred Simple Sketches for the Delight of Honest People (French: Cent légers croquis sans prétention pour réjouir les honnêtes gens) is an artistic cycle created by the Belgian painter Félicien Rops between 1878 and 1881. The cycle consists of one hundred and twelve drawings divided into two albums. The albums were bound in saffron red leather by the famous Second Empire bookbinder Maurius Michel (1846-1925).
The origin of the cycle
The work was commissioned by Jules Noilly, a French bibliophile and admirer of Rops' works. Rops created individual sheets using a combination of pastel techniques "Pastel (technique)"), colored pencil, gouache, chalk and watercolor. The central motif is the semi-naked female bodies, provocative for their strangeness and sexual exceptionality. The intention of both Rops and Noilly was to parody and mock the hypocrisy of bourgeois society. The albums always consist of a main frontispiece "Frontispiece (part of the book)"), a postscript and ten frontispieces "Frontispiece (part of the book)"), one frontispiece for each series of ten drawings. The work is an attempt to treasure the typology of a modern woman who uses her sexuality to penetrate the world of men and dominate that world.
Description of some parts
The main frontispiece is titled Rops in his studio with a model (Rops dans son atelier avec son modèle) from 1878. The self-portrait shows the artist smoking a cigarette and examining his model. The woman saves her clothes to inspire the painter. Rops also used a similar motif of an almost naked woman on the sheet The librarian (La bibliothécaire). A naked woman lies on the bed with her back to the viewer, reading morally objectionable literature; The Devil, with a sinister smile, has just emerged from his hiding place behind the curtain and offers the woman another immoral reading. Censored or erotic literature was banned in the 19th century. Here the painter points out the pleasure and exciting joy of such reading. The same motif is repeated in the cake "Pastel (technique)") . Here, a prostitute examines her naked body in the mirror while a mature man lustfully watches her through the half-open door. Using the mirror, Rops achieved a double effect: the magic of female eroticism in front of the mirror, and through the older man's reflection, ruthlessly showing the woman's future destiny.
Demand (Démangeaison)
Male desire is represented in the sheets Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la bête) and First sigh (Premier Sopir). The motif of a man watching a woman undressing or dressing was also used by Rops in the drawing The Arrangement (La Toilette), with a courtesan in her underwear arranging herself at the dressing table in the presence of her client. On the sheet Memories of yesteryear (Souvenirs Đ'antan), the romantic evocations of an old sailor in the form of young naked girls in various positions, float in the room where he smokes a pipe next to the fireplace.
Venus "Venus (mythology)") and the island of Cythera are also frequent motifs in the cycle. An example is the frontispiece Archaeological Society of Cythera (Société archélogique de Cythère). It is an allegory of the excavation of the body of Venus, the putti are photographing their discovery while others are bringing the breasts, each one separately, and excavating the lower part of the statue that protrudes from the ground. A semi-naked Venus is also represented on the sheet The Toilet in Cythera (La Toilette à Cythère). The author highlights the triumphalism of the seated Venus, whose suggestive nude, still wearing stockings and shoes, contrasts with the empty space in the background while putti and winged furniture bring the large mirror, toiletries and makeup products closer to her. Another plate with the Venus motif is The Weighing at Cythera (Le Pesage à Cythère), where the body of a blonde and voluptuous Venus sitting on one plate of the scales as a symbol of sexuality weighs more than all the wealth in the world on the other. The naked Venus holds in her hand a puppet that represents the man who, under the influence of her erotic power, becomes a meaningless puppet, a ridiculous clown. Rops tried to show the birth of modern Venus with the drawing The Shower (La Douche). Here, a woman is shown standing in a spa shower with water pouring over her head while an attendant shoots a stream of water from a hose toward her crotch. The jet of water is a metaphor for intercourse.
The great theme of the cycle is the representation of priestesses of love in different environments. The setting of the night street where a prostitute offers herself in Four in the Morning (Quatre heures du matin), the boudoir of the courtesan amused before the young novice suitor in the drawing The Song of the Cherub (La Chanson de Chérubin), the brothel in The Control Commission (Le Conseil de révision). In this sheet, Rops shows a young woman standing naked inside a brothel, while an inspector carefully examines the body to see if she presents any symptoms and therefore if she will be able to continue working as a prostitute.
He showed his ability to celebrate the diverse shapes of the female body in the drawings The molding (Le moulage), The muscle of a couturier (Le muscle du grand courier) or The massage (Le massage). In the plate The lesson in hygiene (La leçon ďhygiene), Rops shows female bodies as anatomical models in wax, affected by syphilis, placed in a pathology museum. Rops portrayed strong and dominant women in After Midnight (Passé minuit), where a middle-aged bourgeois woman throws herself furiously at her night-owl husband, while the wall ironically shows the couple's formal wedding portrait, and in The Social Revolution (Le révolution sociale) where the symbol of the revolution is a prostitute standing in profile on a barricade. She is naked and is only wearing silk stockings and red high-heeled shoes, as well as the saber.
Several plates show the world behind the scenes of the circus, which the artist knew personally, for example the plate The angel of apotheosis (L'ange de l'apothéose) or the plate The repetition (La répétition). Here Rops demonstrates how perfectly he can capture different forms of circus art. A man watches a naked artist rehearsing, suspended upside down, with her feet hooked in a hanging hoop. In the drawing Woman trapeze artist (La Femme au trapèze), Rops represented a muscular and firm female body. However, his face has a pleading look and a tired expression. It is the portrait of a woman who knows the misery, volatility and daily dangers of the life of a comedian. The needy world of the circus is also captured in the drawing Minerva's Intermission (L'entreacte de Minerve). A naked circus performer sits at a table between two acts, drinking from a bowl, staring melancholy into space. A shield at his feet, the helmet with a parrot still on it. A clown observes her pulling aside a curtain. Also the drawing from Love flies (L'amour mouché) shows a pierrot standing behind a curtain looking at a seated half-naked artist dreaming of her little son in the role of Cupid. Although smiling at the vulgar detail, Pierrot's pale face resembles a death mask, evoking a feeling of misery, existential uncertainty and the weight of life. In the sheet L'homme à la femme sauvage (The Man and the Wild Woman), a woman disguised as an Indian seduces a man in an atmosphere of theatrical props.
Summary
Félicien Rops attempted to capture the shapes of the modern woman in the series One Hundred Simple Sketches for the Delight of Honest People. The album is based on Balzac's literary cycle The Human Comedy and also on Zola's novel cycle The Rougon-Macquart. It shows bourgeois ladies, courtesans, prostitutes, grisettes, loretas, models, circus and variety artists, on individual plates and places them in various environments. Most of them appear naked or semi-naked, because it is intended that what they want to highlight must also be partially covered. That's why half-exposed female bodies are typical of him. This cycle is exceptional for its scope, original conception and artistic quality.
• - Decadentism.
• - Femme fatale.
• - Fin de siècle.
• - Půtová, Barbora, Félicien Rops enfant terrible dekadence, preparation of the Roman Prahl edition, edited by M. Urban, Czech translation by J. Bažantová, P. Christov, M. Kodl, B. Půtová, Prague, 2013; pp. 120-124. ISBN 978-80-7438-098-3.
Demand (Démangeaison)
Male desire is represented in the sheets Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la bête) and First sigh (Premier Sopir). The motif of a man watching a woman undressing or dressing was also used by Rops in the drawing The Arrangement (La Toilette), with a courtesan in her underwear arranging herself at the dressing table in the presence of her client. On the sheet Memories of yesteryear (Souvenirs Đ'antan), the romantic evocations of an old sailor in the form of young naked girls in various positions, float in the room where he smokes a pipe next to the fireplace.
Venus "Venus (mythology)") and the island of Cythera are also frequent motifs in the cycle. An example is the frontispiece Archaeological Society of Cythera (Société archélogique de Cythère). It is an allegory of the excavation of the body of Venus, the putti are photographing their discovery while others are bringing the breasts, each one separately, and excavating the lower part of the statue that protrudes from the ground. A semi-naked Venus is also represented on the sheet The Toilet in Cythera (La Toilette à Cythère). The author highlights the triumphalism of the seated Venus, whose suggestive nude, still wearing stockings and shoes, contrasts with the empty space in the background while putti and winged furniture bring the large mirror, toiletries and makeup products closer to her. Another plate with the Venus motif is The Weighing at Cythera (Le Pesage à Cythère), where the body of a blonde and voluptuous Venus sitting on one plate of the scales as a symbol of sexuality weighs more than all the wealth in the world on the other. The naked Venus holds in her hand a puppet that represents the man who, under the influence of her erotic power, becomes a meaningless puppet, a ridiculous clown. Rops tried to show the birth of modern Venus with the drawing The Shower (La Douche). Here, a woman is shown standing in a spa shower with water pouring over her head while an attendant shoots a stream of water from a hose toward her crotch. The jet of water is a metaphor for intercourse.
The great theme of the cycle is the representation of priestesses of love in different environments. The setting of the night street where a prostitute offers herself in Four in the Morning (Quatre heures du matin), the boudoir of the courtesan amused before the young novice suitor in the drawing The Song of the Cherub (La Chanson de Chérubin), the brothel in The Control Commission (Le Conseil de révision). In this sheet, Rops shows a young woman standing naked inside a brothel, while an inspector carefully examines the body to see if she presents any symptoms and therefore if she will be able to continue working as a prostitute.
He showed his ability to celebrate the diverse shapes of the female body in the drawings The molding (Le moulage), The muscle of a couturier (Le muscle du grand courier) or The massage (Le massage). In the plate The lesson in hygiene (La leçon ďhygiene), Rops shows female bodies as anatomical models in wax, affected by syphilis, placed in a pathology museum. Rops portrayed strong and dominant women in After Midnight (Passé minuit), where a middle-aged bourgeois woman throws herself furiously at her night-owl husband, while the wall ironically shows the couple's formal wedding portrait, and in The Social Revolution (Le révolution sociale) where the symbol of the revolution is a prostitute standing in profile on a barricade. She is naked and is only wearing silk stockings and red high-heeled shoes, as well as the saber.
Several plates show the world behind the scenes of the circus, which the artist knew personally, for example the plate The angel of apotheosis (L'ange de l'apothéose) or the plate The repetition (La répétition). Here Rops demonstrates how perfectly he can capture different forms of circus art. A man watches a naked artist rehearsing, suspended upside down, with her feet hooked in a hanging hoop. In the drawing Woman trapeze artist (La Femme au trapèze), Rops represented a muscular and firm female body. However, his face has a pleading look and a tired expression. It is the portrait of a woman who knows the misery, volatility and daily dangers of the life of a comedian. The needy world of the circus is also captured in the drawing Minerva's Intermission (L'entreacte de Minerve). A naked circus performer sits at a table between two acts, drinking from a bowl, staring melancholy into space. A shield at his feet, the helmet with a parrot still on it. A clown observes her pulling aside a curtain. Also the drawing from Love flies (L'amour mouché) shows a pierrot standing behind a curtain looking at a seated half-naked artist dreaming of her little son in the role of Cupid. Although smiling at the vulgar detail, Pierrot's pale face resembles a death mask, evoking a feeling of misery, existential uncertainty and the weight of life. In the sheet L'homme à la femme sauvage (The Man and the Wild Woman), a woman disguised as an Indian seduces a man in an atmosphere of theatrical props.
Summary
Félicien Rops attempted to capture the shapes of the modern woman in the series One Hundred Simple Sketches for the Delight of Honest People. The album is based on Balzac's literary cycle The Human Comedy and also on Zola's novel cycle The Rougon-Macquart. It shows bourgeois ladies, courtesans, prostitutes, grisettes, loretas, models, circus and variety artists, on individual plates and places them in various environments. Most of them appear naked or semi-naked, because it is intended that what they want to highlight must also be partially covered. That's why half-exposed female bodies are typical of him. This cycle is exceptional for its scope, original conception and artistic quality.
• - Decadentism.
• - Femme fatale.
• - Fin de siècle.
• - Půtová, Barbora, Félicien Rops enfant terrible dekadence, preparation of the Roman Prahl edition, edited by M. Urban, Czech translation by J. Bažantová, P. Christov, M. Kodl, B. Půtová, Prague, 2013; pp. 120-124. ISBN 978-80-7438-098-3.