Joseph Apoux 1846-1910

Born in Le Blanc, in the Indre region, Joseph Apoux trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in the studio of Jean-Léon Gérôme. In 1880, he took part for the first time in the Salon des Artistes Français, presenting two paintings with evocative titles: Lucrèce Borgia and Her Dolls (Lucrèce Borgia et ses poupées) (cat. no. 64) and The First Pipe (La première pipe) (cat. no. 65). Although officially admitted as a student of a leading history painter, Apoux nevertheless adopted a provocative and subtly transgressive approach, favoring bawdy and erotic subjects and mocking the lofty genre so prized by his teacher.

Aware that such imagery circulated more effectively through illustration than through large-scale painting, Apoux quickly specialized in aquatint and drypoint engraving. While he continued to exhibit his paintings and drawings regularly at the Salon, he also took part in the International Exhibition of Black and White in 1886. Closely associated with fin-de-siècle Decadence, he produced numerous caricatures, illustrated the voluptuous and sensual works of Edmond Dumoulin, and achieved considerable success with his print portfolios infused with a strange, often morbid eroticism, heavily charged with symbolism.

Between 1880 and 1900, he worked closely with the publisher Joly on the Quai Saint-Michel and with the print dealer René Pincebourde, for whom he produced the famous Pornographic Alphabet (Alphabet pornographique) as well as major series of erotic etchings such as Witches (Sorcières), Drypoints (Pointes sèches), The Seven Deadly Sins (Les Péchés capitaux), The Zodiac (Le Zodiaque), Six Caprices (Six caprices), and Dancers (Danseuses).