The Apse of Notre-Dame, Paris

Charles Meryon

ca. 1852–54 · Graphite · Drawings and Prints

Meryon was the first nineteenth-century French etcher to make the Parisian cityscape his primary focus. This is the final preparatory drawing that he made for an etching of the same title (29.107.103; 57.531.5; 67.630.25; 17.3.414), as part of his suite of twenty-two prints entitled "Eaux-fortes sur Paris" (Etching on Paris). With a precise graphite line, Meryon details all the compositional elements of his design and he remained faithful to it in translating the drawing to the etching plate. Executed approximately midway through a twenty-year restoration of Notre Dame, the work gives little indication of the renovation underway. It shows the cathedral as it looked prior to the completion of the spire in 1859.

Artist

Charles Meryon

Date

ca. 1852–54

Medium

Graphite

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Bequest of Anne and John W. Straus, 2020