Armand Rassenfosse 1862-1934

Born into a wealthy family in Liège, Armand Rassenfosse was initially compelled to take over the family business in porcelain and decorative objects. Showing an early talent for drawing, he pursued his artistic education largely as a self-taught artist. Through his father, he befriended the painter Auguste Donnay, who introduced him to other students of the Liège Academy of Fine Arts, including Gustave Serrurier-Bovy and the Berchmans brothers.

At the age of twenty, Rassenfosse began experimenting with etching and contributed drawings to the satirical journal Le Frondeur, using a pseudonym. Encouraged by the painter Adrien de Witte, then a drawing instructor at the Liège Academy, he further honed his skills as an engraver, working from 1887 for the printer Auguste Bénard. A decisive encounter came during a trip to Paris in 1888, when he met Félicien Rops, at the height of his fame; they formed a close friendship and together developed the highly innovative soft-ground technique, later nicknamed “Ropsenfosse,” which allowed the delicacy of drawing to be faithfully reproduced in engraving.

Two years later, Rassenfosse left the family business to dedicate himself entirely to art. While his work for Bénard brought him modest financial stability, he also collaborated with major Parisian journals such as La Plume and Le Mercure de France. At the same time, he pursued his painting practice and exhibited for the first time in 1896 at the Salon of the Libre Esthétique in Brussels, establishing a solid reputation. He took on numerous commissions in luxury publishing, culminating in 1899 with his major work: the complete illustration of Charles Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Malfor the edition of Les Cent Bibliophiles, producing more than two hundred color engravings.