Satan sement l'ivraie (premier planche). (Satan Sowing Tares). Heliogravure printed in colors by Albert-Emmanuel Bertrand (1864-1912) after Rops, Exsteens 864. Image: 10 1/8 x 7; Plate: 12 x 8 1/8; sheet: 17 x 12 3/4. Edition 100. Series: Les Sataniques. An atmospheric, tonal impression printed on simili-Japon paper. Red seal of the publisher, Gustave Pellet, lower right; remarque, lower right. Unsigned.
Albert Bertrand made two heliogravures after Satan sement l'ivraie, Exsteens 864 and Exsteens 859 (See Rouir pages 710 and 711). He was a French artist who studied under Isidore-Alexandre-Augustin Pils (1815-1875). Brtrand made his debut at the Salon in 1880.
The theme reimagines a Biblical parable of a farmer sowing seeds in a field. Rops shows Satan scattering his semen, in the form of fully-formed babies, over Paris, one foot on Notre Dame. This is one of the artist's most dramatic images.
