Cythera's Toilette 

Félicien Rops created ‘Cythera’s Toilette’ using etching, aquatint and soft varnish. It's a complex combination of processes, all requiring patience and skill. The result is a rich, velvety texture that suits Rops's decadent subject matter. This is no ordinary toilette: the winged cherubs carry not flowers or perfume, but weapons and bottles. The overall composition is built up through labor-intensive techniques. Each area of tone would have to be carefully stopped out, and the plate re-bitten many times in acid. Rops was deeply engaged with the industrialization of printmaking. He was fascinated by the possibilities of photogravure, a process that allowed photographs to be transferred to metal plates and printed in ink. Though the scene is of an island of love turned to debauchery, it is grounded in the labor of material production. The making of this image is just as crucial to its meaning. It challenges the traditional hierarchy separating the ‘high art’ of painting from the ‘low craft’ of printmaking.