Félicien ROPS. "VERITAS", [September-October 1887]. Original black pencil drawing with colored pencil highlights and stump, on light gray [Pellée] paper*, in slightly irregular cut as often (29.8/30 x 18.6/18.8), mounted on Japon en plein. An exceptional, unknown drawing that has given rise to numerous glosses. It is monogrammed and dedicated in graphite: "A Mallarmé Stephane / F.R.". Is Veritas in its righteousness, chanting and crushing Death impassively, turning away from the naked Lie, slumped over and condemned to hang? Does Rops' question (on the back of the seat) remain? What more beautiful drawing to offer Mallarmé than this counterpart to La Grande Lyre des Poésies, whose design Rops gave to his wife [see 47/3]. These two bookplates were designed together (see studies below). Let's take a look at some of Verhaeren's impressions of the drawing for La Grande Lyre at the XX exhibition in February 1888, to highlight certain similarities. In L'Art Moderne of February 12, 1888, he notes: "femme assise, tenant la lyre svelte, sonore et triomphale, tandis que les cordes s'en vont immensément"; and he adds in La Revue indépendante: "Une muse assise dans les nuages sur un siège à dossier figurant un point d'interrogation nimbé, dresse une lyre svelte et superbe dont les cordes filent ad astra [....] At the bottom, on a pedestal, skulls are piled pell-mell [...] The muse puts her feet on it" (March [1st] 88 [and not June in Verhaeren, Écrits sur l'Art, ed. P. Aron, Bruxelles, Labor, 1997 p.. 295]). * We have often described it, notably in the F. Rops cat. of the [Pigneur] sale, Brussels, Simonson, 15/12/1990, no. 34: "Papier Pellée à couche préparée gris clair (verso bl.), toile de 1 teinte d'après le timbre sec (entier) de la firme Pottin à Nantes". Specially used in the '80s, like dark gray. Exhibition: Les Richesses de la bibliophilie belge [on the occasion of the Universal Expo]. Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale, May-June 1958, no. 152, coll. of Auguste Lambiotte. Provenance: - Charles Cousin, deceased 1894 (Lugt 512, Rouir II, no. 11 p. 77). [He collected copies of Poulet-Malassis's Ropsian editions, purchased from his widow (sale of her collection in April 1891). That same year, he received from Deman No. 3 on Japon de Pages: "Au bon bibliophile, Charles Cousin, ces fleurs de 'littérature maladive'" (Publications de la Librairie Deman, p. 61). Had the bookseller sniffed out a bargain with his re-silvered customer? For Deman was on the lookout for any Rops (collecting, selling, co-publishing Ramiro...), and the cash-strapped artist was himself a seller (see La Grande Lyre donated and still offered to Ramiro, no. 47/3). From there to give Mallarmé's to Cousin or some other?!] - Baron de Launoit; - [Auguste Lambiotte], Bibliothèque d'un amateur, Drouot, 2nd part, 22/4/1977 n° 62; - Carlo De Poortere, a great Courtraisian collector, notably of Rops. [See on these collectors, no. 46]. Two original studies are enclosed, [September 1887. See no. 49, the photogravure of a pen-and-ink drawing of the "Ex libris" frontispiece to Édouard Dujardin's À la gloire d'Antonia announced in September, Mallarmé's copy]: 1) Nude seated, with lyre, in profile to the right, face 3/4. Drawing on brown tracing paper (27.5 x 14cm) in pencil and black pencil with, on verso, a rubbing in red chalk, a recurrent practice. Autographed titles in pen: "Pastorale/Le Curé/Pendu". Served, with two thin vertical holes for transfer to the following drawing. Elements, such as the sketch of a lyre on the seat, are found only in La Grande Lyre des Poésies. Small "remark" of a face. Mounted by the corners on bl. f., edges damaged due to fragility. Provenance: former coll. Pereire (album des calques), stamps coll. J. Odry and Carlo De Poortere et succ. (Bergé sale, Brussels, 30/3/2009 no. 76). 2) Seated nude (idem). Draft (before the lyre) in pencil and red chalk of the supra tracing transfer on yellow card stock with bl. border [Pellée] (original cut half-sheet at l. 46 x 30, idem cf. 47/1a) with the two fine vertical reference holes on the central vertical line setting. Prepared paper often used in the studio in the 1880s. Provenance: Félicien Rops, Atelier de la Demi-Lune, Corbeil-Essonnes; Rops coll. stamp on verso.