Armand Rassenfosse

Armand Rassenfosse ( born August 6 1862 in Liege, † January 28, 1934 ) was a Belgian graphic designer, book illustrator and painter.

Life

The Rassenfosse family had a long-established furniture shop with art dealer and the son of Armand seemed destined also to find there his profession.

That seemed to be the case until he met in 1886 in Paris, Félicien Rops his time a famous graphic artist and one of the most sought-after illustrators of France. Rops was him already from his school days in Namur known, for at that time he lived with his uncle, the few leaves that coming from Namur Rops left him from his collection.

The encounter of Rops and Rassenfosse was a long-standing friendship and working community. The experimental and always interested in perfecting his graphic art Rops found in Rassenfosse an open-minded students and helpers. Together with Rassenfosse developed Rops his last years a special form of Weichgrundätzung that he " Ropsenfosse " called.

As a result, Rassenfosse developed into a recognized graphic designer and illustrator who largely remained, of course depending on Rops in technique and subject matter. His main work is the illustration for Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal, a job he received through the mediation of Rops by the Parisian publisher Eugen Rodriguez of the Société des Bibliophiles cents. The work appeared in 1899 in an edition of only 130 copies and is considered a masterpiece of book illustration.