Hodgepodge

March 1866

Baudelaire collapses in the Church of Saint-Loup in Namur

Rops invites Baudelaire, who is in Belgium in self-imposed exile from his creditors, and Poulet-Malassis to his home town; in the baroque Church of Saint-Loup, as they admire the carving of the confessionals, the poet collapses on the floor — the first symptoms of aphasia and hemiplegia. Baudelaire never fully recovers and dies in August 1867; he said that in Belgium only Rops and Poulet-Malassis lightened his sadness.

early 1870s

A marriage in crisis

Long months in Paris away from his wife and his poorly concealed affairs take their toll on the marriage: Charlotte writes that his latest affair is the eighth since they met and married, and ends her letter with a word of pardon. The mistress in question, Alice Renaud, will be murdered a few years later by her jealous husband, and Rops is drawn into the scandal when his intimate love letters to her are read out at the trial.

by 1875

Final estrangement from his wife

By 1875 Félicien and Charlotte are permanently estranged — although they never divorce — and Paris remains Rops’s home for the rest of his life.

April 1892

An accident with bichlorate of potassium

In late April 1892, busy with an engraving, Rops accidentally gets bichlorate of potassium in his eye and would undoubtedly have lost his sight without the intervention of the ophthalmologist Georges Camuset, an acquaintance; by some accounts his sight is greatly impaired afterwards, by others it eventually recovers.

15 June 1896

The review “La Plume” devotes an issue to Rops

The literary review “La Plume” publishes a special tribute issue (no. 172) devoted exclusively to Rops, in which Puvis de Chavannes, Huysmans, Octave Mirbeau, Joséphin Péladan and José-Maria de Heredia praise his work; the illustrations to “Les Diaboliques” and the “Les Sataniques” series are singled out.

23 August 1898

Death in Corbeil-Essonnes

Rops dies at home — La Demi-Lune, the house he bought on the Seine, where in later years he bred new varieties of roses — with Aurélie and Léontine Duluc, his daughter Claire and close friends at his side; his son Paul, told of the imminent death, travels from Belgium but arrives too late. He is buried in Essonnes.