The Félicien Rops Provincial Museum opens its doors again! From 22 November 2003 From 22 November, an enlarged and completely renovated museum will welcome visitors to present them the works of the permanent collection through a circuit and a setting design enabling them to make a more dynamic and more comprehensive discovery of Félicien Rops’ creative work. As a reminder, these renovation works, which began in 1999, have made it possible to enlarge the museum by converting the neighbouring house, purchased by the Province of Namur in 1988, and so create two additional galleries and an audiovisual room. The restructuring and renovation of the old museum followed in the spirit of the newly created space, including the actual premises, the air-conditioning, the lighting and the documentation department, now equipped with a work and reading room. The reception area has also been renovated and it is currently equipped with multimedia resources, giving access to the Museum website, to the Portal of museums in Wallonia and to an “Etching Route in Wallonia”. The premises of the former coffee-roasting workshop, renovated in 1997, recover their earlier vocation, which was to present temporary exhibitions. The former workshop will be the venue where you will therefore be able to discover: Le cabinet de curiosités de Félicien Rops. Caprice et fantaisie en marge d’estampes1, also from 22 November, presented until 29 February 2004 (see enclosed leaflet). Let us go back to the actual tour of the museum. The governing idea is discovery through separate areas, as opposed to a direct and all-encompassing view. This idea is immediately confirmed when we arrive at the museum, in front of the very differentiated façades of the old and new building: one, repainted in a light colour after the manner of the façades of its period, the other, in a contemporary style, retaining its redbrick surface. The entrance hall leads visitors directly to the reception room rather than drawing their eyes, as it previously did, to the opening leading out into the garden. In actual fact, the entrance hall has been made opaque, allowing only the light to filter through. In this way, the discovery of the garden (which is also scheduled to be renovated), and the sculptures planned to be installed in the garden will be deferred till later on. In the same spirit, several fixed windows placed in the entrance hall look onto the interior of the library. Upstairs too, openings, “gaze boxes” give a hint of the rooms to be discovered or provide a glimpse of those you have just left. 1 Le cabinet de curiosités of Félicien Rops Whim and fantasy in the margin of prints These specific atmospheres are also created by the arrangement of veils spread along the outer walls, which are stretched or tightened behind the pictures, so producing an effect that creates and varies the gaps according to the themes of the works. Showcases and drawers, desks, recesses, arranged in all the rooms, also allow the visitor to take a more curious, more precise and probably a more in-depth look at a set of etchings, letters, annotations, etc. which ask for nothing better than to be discovered. While, on the uppermost floor of the museum, the space opens out and the presentation becomes more airy. Lastly, during the actual tour, visitors “mark time” before discovering the artist’s most notorious works: Pornokratès toys with their patience … The tour begins with a biographical presentation of the artist, in connection with the artistic and political events of the period; the first galleries are logically devoted to Rops’ first artistic sallies, his life in Brussels, his significant artistic encounters in Belgium, the period of realism ... The “Parisian Rops” comes next as the artist’s talent blossoms through his drawings and paintings of nightlife (Le Bouge à Matelots, la Dèche, la Buveuse d’Absinthe, the “Dame au Pantin” …). A room is specially devoted to his etchings and highlights the Museum’s collection, enhanced with educational showcases together with a video screen showing the various etching techniques, tools and processes. There is also the opportunity to discover the works of distraction, connected with Rops’ journeys and the places where he stayed, as well as the artist’s close relationships with the literary world of his time though his work as an illustrator and also through his prolific correspondence. Not forgetting, of course, the satanic and erotic works; they too have their own separate room. The Arts Department of the Province of Namur Félicien Rops Museum, 12, rue Fumal, 5000 Namur Tel.: 081 22 01 10 – Fax: 081 22 54 47 E-mail: rops@ciger.be Website: www.ciger.be/rops Open Tuesdays to Sundays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Open every day in July and August