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 CHARLES MERYON, 
 
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This Edition conjijis of One Hundred and Twenty-five 
 Copies, of which this is 
 
 ^0. /M.. 
 
A MEMOIR 
 
 AND 
 
 Complete Descriptive Catalogue 
 
 OF THE WORKS OF 
 
 CHARLES MERYON. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2008 with funding from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/charlesmryonsaOOburtrich 
 
CHARLES MERYON, 
 
 SAILOR, ENGRAVER, AND ETCHER. 
 
 A MEMOIR 
 
 AND 
 
 Complete Beseriptibe Catalogue 
 
 OF 
 
 HIS WORKS. ::.:.. 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH 
 
 OF 
 
 PHILIP BURTY 
 
 BY 
 
 MARCUS B. HUISH. 
 
 LONDON: 
 THE FINE ART SOCIETY, 148 New Bond Street. 
 
 1879. 
 

 LONDON: 
 PRINTED BY STRANGEWAYS AND SONS, 
 Tower Street, Upper St. Martin's Lane. 
 
NOTE BT THE TRANSLATOR. 
 
 In prefenting to Englifh Colledtors, in a revifed and 
 acceflible form, the Catalogue which has hitherto been 
 the ftandard authority on Meryon's works, I felt that my 
 tafk did not end with the completion of the tranflation, 
 but that a comparifon of the fads therein ftated with 
 thofe difclofed by a careful review of the colledlions in 
 this country was a neceflity. For afliftance in fo doing 
 I muft tender my thanks to the authorities in the Print- 
 room of the Britifh Mufeum, Mr. Seymour Haden, and 
 the Rev. J. J. Heywood. The refult fuggefted confider- 
 able alterations and variations, which Mr. Burty, after 
 due confideration, afl*ented to. 
 
 MARCUS B. HUISH. 
 
 M5D995 
 
AUX LECTEURS. 
 
 Le Travail fur Charles Meryon et Jon ceuvre que M. Marcus 
 Huifh prefente aujourd'hui de ma part au public anglais 
 etait pret depuis plufieurs annees, et je n'efperais plus 
 rencontrer rien qui put Taugmenter. J'avais eu dans 
 la main tous les papiers defirables pour compofer la bio- 
 graphie, et j'avais note tous les etats des eaux-fortes. 
 
 J'avais ete follicite plufieurs fois de le publier. 
 
 Mais la France eft encore la proie de I'ecole academique. 
 Les critiques et les amateurs qui combattent cette baftille 
 imprenable font peu nombreux. Leur influence perfonnelle 
 eft infuffifante pour reagir vidorieufement, dans notre 
 pays fi fortement centralife, contre la protedtion accordee 
 exclufivement aux dodrines academiques par les minifteres, 
 les diredeurs de mufees et de bibliotheques, les ecrivains 
 de revue, etc. II en refulte que les artiftes independants, 
 etoufFes des leur entree dans un monde univerfellement 
 hoftile, vegetant dans I'obfcurit^, recevant mille railleries, 
 font enterres dans le filence. Tel a kxh. le cas de Charles 
 Meryon. II a vecu miferablement. II n'a jamais re^u 
 un feul honneur ofliciel. Nos etablifl'ements nationaux ont 
 laifle fortir de France les pages les plus belles et les plus 
 rares de fon oeuvre. La juftice commence feulement a 
 fe faire. 
 
vi ^AUX LECTEURS. 
 
 Au commencement du mois de Juin dernier, M. Marcus 
 Huifh me demanda mon travail au nom des amateurs 
 anglais. Je ne pouvais me refufer a d'aufli honorables et 
 fympathiques foUicitations. Je favais d'ailleurs combien 
 I'Angleterre f'^tait paflionnee pour Jes oeuvres de Charles 
 Meryon. II etait temps que je mifle en lumiere tout ce 
 qui pouvait fervir a le faire definitivement connaitre. 
 
 Des 1859, je l'3.vais pr^fent^ a la Gazette des Beaux- 
 ArtSj et je lui avais fait commander des planches. A ce 
 moment il etait encore fi peu connu en dehors du cercle 
 des artiftes et de quelques hommes de lettres, que mon 
 premier article excita du mecontentement. On trouva 
 que *j'encourageais ouvertement I'abandon de la tradition.' 
 Mais apres le fecond article, il y eut dans le bureau de la 
 Revue une fcene tres-vive. Un des diredeurs demandait 
 avec ironie, ' Combien Ton accorderait de livraifons a 
 Raphael, puifque Ton en confecrait deux a un aquafortifte 
 vivant ?' . . . 
 
 Je puis dire fans manquer a la modeftie, que mon 
 heureufe audace eut de bons refultats. Les deux articles, 
 Tun biographique et I'autre defcriptif, furent conftamment 
 confultes et cit^s par les amateurs d'eaux-fortes. 
 
 Je n'abandonnai jamais Meryon ni fon ceuvre. Lorf- 
 qu'il mourut je publiai de nouveau un article fur les 
 Portraits, lequel a reparu, revu et amplifie, dans mon 
 livre Maitres et Petits-mattres/^ Enfin, lorfque je me 
 decidai a me feparer de mes colledlions d'Eaux-fortes des 
 
 * M. Frederick Wedmore dans fon oeuvre fur Meryon, fen eft fervi 
 pour les anecdotes, de memc que de mes autres articles et de mes 
 converfations. 
 
zAUX LECTEURS. vii 
 
 Maitres modernes, les notes que je fournis pour rediger 
 
 le catalogue donnerent fur fon oeuvre des renfeignements 
 
 abreges mais certains. 
 
 Mes ledeurs comprendront fans peine combien je fuis 
 
 heureux de voir fe repandre le renom d'un maitre.que 
 
 j'admire et d'un homme que j'ai aime. Charles Meryon, 
 
 avec Bracquemond, a ete le principal reftaurateur de I'eau- 
 
 forte artiftique en France. Sa gloire rayonne dans celle 
 
 de ce vieux Paris qui devait fuccomber fous les conditions 
 
 de la vie nouvelle, mais dont on regrettera toujours la 
 
 couleur, I'originalite, la verite. II a ajoute un fleuron a 
 
 la couronne de la nouvelle ecole fran^aife. Aujourd'hui, fes 
 
 planches font difputees a prix d'or par les amateurs les 
 
 plus difficiles. On m'a promis que fon nom ferait infcrit 
 
 dans le nouvel Hotel de Ville, parmi les noms dont fe 
 
 glorifie la ville de Paris. Le peu que j'ai pu faire pour 
 
 hater leclofion de fa reputation eft une des meilleures 
 
 fortunes de ma vie de critique. On comprendra que je 
 
 tienne a honneur de rappeler les dates de mes premiers 
 
 travaux fur Meryon, puifqu'ils ont fervi a tout ce qui a 
 
 ete ecrit fur lui et fur fon oeuvre.* 
 
 PH. BURTY. 
 
 19 OSlobre^ 1 8 79, Paris. 
 
 * Mr, Wedmore dans fon catalogue n'a pas etc trouvd une pi^ce 
 inconnue, il n'a pas etc fignal^ un ^tat important. On a feulement 
 modifid — fans aucune raifon fdrieufe — I'ordre du claflement. 
 
A MEMOIR. 
 
 HARLES MERYON, whofe work is now a- 
 days fought after with an avidity unexampled 
 fave in the cafe of the rareft matters, was born 
 in Paris, the 23rd of November, 1821. He 
 was of Englifh defcent through his father, Charles Lewys 
 Meryon, phyfician and fecretary to Lady Stanhope, and 
 probably compiler of the correfpondence of that cele- 
 brated charadler. His mother, whom he always believed 
 to be of Spanifh origin, although her name, Pierre 
 Narcifle Chafpoux, is altogether French, was a ballet- 
 dancer at the Opera. Intelligent and gentle, fhe beftowed 
 on her fon the moft ardent afFedion, and watched over 
 his early education with unceafing care. She, however, 
 it was who bequeathed to him, together with an ardent 
 temperament, the germs of the mental difeafe which 
 carried him off whilft in mid career. She it was who 
 made him the nervous child who fought for a reafon 
 in everything. For inttance, one day he was taken to the 
 Theatre Comte. The lights were lowered, and a feance 
 began. A fkeleton appeared, to be fhortly afterwards followed 
 by a fecond. Both had fpades, with which they commenced 
 to dig. Meryon was riveted by their occupation, but 
 fuddenly became agitated, and afked to be taken home. 
 When they got outfide the theatre his mother tried to 
 
 B 
 
CHA%L6S MS'HrO^, 
 
 pacify him, but he would repeat, ^ Mamma, is it in order 
 to difguft men with agricuhural purfuits that the Govern- 
 ment fends fkeletons on to the ftage?' When, forty 
 years afterwards, this was mentioned to him, he declared 
 that his nerves were ftill unftrung by the fcene. 
 . ^At the. age of five he was fent to fchool at PafTy. 
 FVorJir-'thfe.* firft he was an excitable and fitful fcholar. 
 : IJ^^ tearnt but little Latin, devoting himfelf to the French 
 langiiage. ' **But,' he wrote, in fome notes which I have 
 before me, * the charming fituation of the fchoolhoufe in 
 the open fields, the extent of the playgrounds, which gave 
 full fcope for races, athletics, and gymnaflics, and the 
 liberal diet of the houfe, all combined to develope my 
 health and ftrength.' He there received fome elementary 
 lefTons in drawing from a mafler who had ftudied in the 
 ftudio of a landfcape-painter. 
 
 Thence he was removed to Marfeilles, and it was in 
 his long walks on the quays that he acquired "a tafte for 
 a failor's life, which later on led him to enter the navy. 
 It was here, too, that he took his firfl lefTons in fwim- 
 ming, an art which he pradlifed with confiderable fkill 
 and elegance, and which was connected with the lafl illu- 
 fions of his difeafed brain. From Marfeilles he travelled 
 to Hyeres, where he delighted in the combination of 
 ruflic and maritime fcenery. Nice, Genoa, Pifa, and 
 Leghorn, were in turn vifited. He returned from Leg- 
 horn to Paris by way of Marfeilles. After pafTing fome 
 time in a -penfion he declared to his mother that he had 
 fixed on the fea as a profeffion, and with her confent, 
 after taking private lefTons from Monf. Amyot, profefTor 
 of mathematics, he pafTed into the Naval School. 
 
 It was at this time that he received a violent fhock, 
 which he told me afterwards caft over his life an in- 
 eiTaceable tinge of melancholy and timidity. He learnt 
 from the certificate which it was necefTary to produce 
 
<^ msmoi% 
 
 on admiflion that his name had not been legitimifed by 
 his father until three years after his birth. 
 
 Meryon was in his feventeenth year when, in 1837, he 
 entered the Naval School at Breft, under the number 47. 
 He left it two years afterwards, with the number 12, 
 and as a pupil of the fecond clafs. On the 15th of 
 Oftober, 1839, he failed from Toulon in the fhip Algiers, 
 Commander Regandit, bound for Algiers, Tunis, and 
 the fhores of the Levant. At Smyrna he was transferred 
 from the Algiers to the * three-decker,' the Montebello, 
 with the gra4e of firft -clafs cadet. A few months fpent in 
 cruifing about thefe coafts, fo full of memories of the 
 claflic age, imparted a more healthy tone to his mind, 
 and a6led as a relaxation after the fatigue he had under- 
 gone in the ftudy of mathematics. He was already bufy 
 with his pencil, and he made various drawings, amongft 
 them one of that gem of Greek architecture, the choragic 
 monument of Lyficrates,* and another of the frieze of 
 the Temple of Thefeus. He was alfo fortunate in vifiting 
 Milo, Athens, Argos, the Tomb of Agamemnon, and the 
 Gate of the Lions. The fa(5t: foon dawned on him that to 
 make a good draughtfman education was neceflary, and 
 fo, on his return to Toulon, he at once placed himfelf 
 under the tuition of a profeflbr of that city, M. Cordouan, 
 a well-known painter of fouthern landfcapes. Rapid lefTons 
 in pencil, Indian ink, fepia, and water-colour drawing, 
 fhowed him the various methods of execution, but natu- 
 rally did but little to unfold to him the fecrets of the 
 art. The works which he produced whilft under this 
 tutelage are woolly in appearance, and lack knowledge 
 of half tints, but the adual drawing is corre<5t and deli- 
 cate. 
 
 When Meryon, who had meantime loft his mother, 
 
 * He availed himfelf of this drawing to make his beautiful etching, 
 The Entrance ofihe Convent of the French Capucines at Athens. 
 
CHA^LSS .MS'iiro^. 
 
 again went to fea at his own requeft, he was gazetted to 
 the floop-of-war R/iine, Commander Berard. On board 
 fhip his paffion for art did not abate. He ftarted by 
 painting the fcenes for an improvifed theatre; and whilft 
 on the tour of circumnavigation, and during his ftay at 
 Akaroa (in the Banks Peninfula), the forefts of New 
 Zealand, the mountains of New Caledonia, the views of 
 the coaft and iflands, the various types of favages, trees, 
 vegetables, and animals, all furnifhed a thoufand fubjedls 
 for his pencil or his brufh. In the Catalogue will be 
 found feveral etchings, which were intended by him to 
 illuftrate a volume of travels of a fcientific nature. 
 
 I may here mention fome charadleriftic traits of the man 
 brought out during this voyage. • 
 
 At Akaroa he tried his hand at fculpture. Monf. A. 
 de Salicis, who was a brother-officer on board, has preferved 
 the mould of a mafk of a ' grotefque favage, whofe 
 large laughing face would, but for the formidable fet of 
 teeth, pafs mufter for that of an antique faun ; and there 
 can ftill be {cen at the Jardin des Plantes, in one of the 
 inner courts, a Model in plafter of a female whale 
 (^Bal^na aufiralis)^ caught in the Bay of Akaroa, Peninfula 
 of Banks (New Zealand), reduced to an eighth of its 
 natural fize, by M. Meryon, Lieutenant.' I have feen 
 another example of his ikilful handicraft hung up in his 
 ftudio in the Rue Duperre, a fmall frame in cork, in which 
 he had placed a unique proof of the portrait of his friend 
 Decourtives. He alfo, on the occafion of fome Chriftmas 
 feftivities, carved a cradle in cork for the children in a 
 family where he was received as a friend. 
 
 Later on in the Catalogue of his work the refledlions 
 which the fight of the deformity of man, and the mifery 
 of his fellow-creatures in the large towns, aroufed in 
 him, will be mentioned. The following letter of his 
 about a dog, whofe portrait he has daintily engraved. 
 
will fhow how his mind was always exercifed about every 
 thing and every body : — 
 
 ' When we reached Sydney for the fecond time, we had a 
 New Holland puppy, of a favage breed, given us. He was of a 
 reddifh-drab colour, and appeared to be a crofs between a wolf 
 and a fox. It was interefting to watch his habits, not only whilft 
 crofling on our return voyage to Akaroa, but alfo during the laft 
 months of our fojourn at that port. He was far from being 
 fociably inclined, fhunning the failors, and loving the folitude of 
 the quarter-deck. We had at that time another dog, a little 
 bigger than our new-comer, a black one, called Noroi (a naval 
 abbreviation for North-Weft), for he came from the far North of 
 America. As regularly as the morning watch came round and 
 thefe dogs met, one pafling behind and the other coming down 
 from the poop, they fought. At firft the favage dog had the beft 
 of it, but afterwards the black one got the uppermoft. What, 
 however, was moft remarkable about this dog was his natural 
 inftinft, which appeared to be fharpened and developed in 
 him to a much greater degree than in the beft bred of our ordinary 
 fpecies ; naturally enough, the principal aim of his life was to 
 fatisfy his appetites, which were not, I fliould fay, exceffive. 
 Anyhow, by combining this inftindl with a certain amount 
 of cunning, he accompliflied certain thefts which one would hardly 
 have confidered poffible. At nightfall his hunting proclivities 
 feemed to awake ; he fniffed the air, and went and came as if 
 anxious to be on the trail. The dog was intended for the Mufeum 
 at Paris, but, as ill-luck would have it, the day after our leaving 
 Akaroa for France, the fea having fuddenly got up, the dog, who 
 had not yet got his fea-legs, was precipitated by a violent roll of 
 the ftiip into the fea, whence we dare not attempt to refcue him. 
 Being myfelf on the quarter-deck I was a witnefs to his fall. 
 Alas ! all his inftindl and adroitnefs were futile to fave him. I 
 faw him cling with his claws to the projedlions on the fliip's fide, 
 and for fome feconds hang on above the abyfs below him ; but I 
 had enough to do to hold on myfelf, as I had my hands full with 
 the fextant, with which I was taking obfervations, and fo I could 
 render him no fuccour. He loofed his hold, and ftiortly afterwards 
 I faw him in the wake of the veffel, fighting defperately in the 
 breaking waves, with the albatrofl'es hovering round him, waiting 
 to make him their prey.' 
 
CHARLES ^MS1{rO^. 
 
 Here is an epifode, too, of his feafaring life, which 
 fhows in ftrong colours his aftonifhing tenacity of purpofe. 
 It was told me by one of his fellow-officers. 
 
 The veffel was in the bay of Akaroa. Its captain, 
 Berard (who died an Admiral in 1872), a(51:ing under 
 an exaggerated fenfe of difcipline, refufed to allow the. 
 officers to ufe his gig to go afhore in. The latter, on 
 their fide, were vexed at having to ufe the ordinary failors' 
 boat. Meryon announced that he would build himfelf a 
 boat ; fo, obtaining permiffion from the captain to go 
 afhore for a time, he chofe out in the forefl, a fhort 
 diflance from the fea, a yew-tree with a girth of more 
 than four yards. He afked, but folely in order to econo- 
 mize the time, that this tree, which was very hard and 
 of enormous fize, might be cut down by the fhip's car- 
 penter. Once down, the frail and puny Meryon, compafs 
 and pencil in hand, and armed with hatchet and faw, 
 fet himfelf to work to cut out, fhape, and fafhion a boat 
 five yards long. He flept under a fmall tent, and hardly 
 fufficiently guarded himfelf againfl the approach of wild 
 animals by the fire which he kept up at night. He lived 
 on provifions which his comrades, flruck with admiration 
 at his determination, brought him at intervals from the 
 ffiip. His hands, unufed to fuch work, were foon worn 
 to the bone, but he rubbed them with a candle and bound 
 them in bunting, jufl as Bernard PalifTy relates he did 
 during his years of refearch, and he worked on without 
 ceafing. This lafled for three months ! 
 
 When the boat was launched, its lines were fo well 
 laid, and it exhibited fuch fea-going capabilities, that 
 Captain Berard was moved even to tears ! And he gave 
 orders that on their return to France it fhould be placed in 
 the Arfenal at Toulon ; where, no doubt, it flill exifls. 
 
 The cruife at an end, Meryon was given fix months* 
 leave and returned to Paris. He had ferved with credit 
 
during the long and hard voyage. He, however, came to 
 the conclufion that he was not endowed by nature with a 
 conftitution fufficiently robuft to enable him confcientioufly 
 to continue in a profefTion where fo much depended on 
 health and ftrength. Although this feems to me, who 
 have confulted his diary whilft on board fhip, to have been 
 an ill-founded apprehenfion, he was fo impreffed with its 
 reality that he confided his fcruples to his captain. This 
 officer obtained from M. de Montebello, the Minifter of 
 the .Marine, a promife that he fhould be attached to the 
 Hydrographical Department. Unfortunately, this promife 
 was not kept ; Meryon negleded to aflc for an extenfion 
 of leave. The revolution of February came unexpedledly. 
 His pofition was a peculiar one. He was informed that 
 he muft return to his old poft, but he replied that he 
 wifhed to enter on another profefTion, and to give in his 
 refignation as Lieutenant. He was owed five months' 
 pay — he was in great ftraits, nay, almoft in want. Ulti- 
 mately his refignation was accepted. 
 
 Thus it was that he left a profeffion in which all his 
 old friends fay he would have done good fervice. On his 
 leaving the fervice, on the 17th of September, 1846, he 
 was in pofTefiion of a fum of 20,000 francs, which his 
 mother had left him. He efl:ablifhed himfelf in Paris, 
 in the Rue Saint Andre des Arts, and, determined to 
 complete what was wanting in his artifliic education, 
 took a ftudio in the Rue P^autefeuille. He foon 
 ftruck up an acquaintance with a painter employed at 
 the War Office, by name Phelippes, formerly a pupil of 
 David, and aflced him to give him lefibns. The ferioufnefs 
 of this profeflbr greatly imprefled him. Not only did he 
 make him carefully copy in charcoal and with the pencil 
 the plafter cafl-s of the Apollo Belvedere and the Olympian 
 Jupiter, but, what was even of more importance, he ex- 
 plained to him their merits, and taught him to appreciate 
 
8 CHA%LSS mS'BJOS^ 
 
 their beauties. It muft not be forgotten that the fubjed: 
 of our memoir was now nearly thirty years of age, and at 
 that time of life the hand is not fo yielding or docile, nor 
 does the mind derive from ftudies which enforce fubmiffion 
 that pleafure which is afforded to younger minds. But 
 to Meryon, whofe genius was of an unquiet and indepen- 
 dent character, this enforced obedience had for a certain 
 time a falutary effect; and he was quite convinced that it 
 would be ufelefs for him to attempt to gain the objedl he 
 had in view by a more fpeedy route, by a lefs methodical 
 education. But neverthelefs he had a hundred projefts in 
 his mind. He burned with a defire to launch out into 
 compofitions of his own devifing. After his ftudies were 
 only partially completed, he imparted to his mafter his 
 longings to pafs to more advanced work. He made 
 feveral anatomical drawings, in order to get more precife 
 ideas on the play of the mufcles which cover the human 
 frame. He went to the Louvre, inquired into the deep 
 meanings of the mafters, of whofe merits he was ftill in- 
 fenfible, and for whom he never profeffed a great reverence. 
 I well remember his giving me a drawing in red chalk, 
 which he had copied with minute exadlnefs from the 
 marvellous drawing from the hand of Raphael, reprefenting 
 Pfyche holding in her hands a vafe of cryftal, and his 
 faying, * In my copy I have been obliged to corredl one of 
 the eyes, which is not in its proper pofition.' He alfo 
 made at the Louvre ftudies after the cartoons of Jules 
 Romain. 
 
 But his defire to meafure his ftrength — In faft, to 
 run before he could well walk — overpowered him : fo he 
 ftarted one fine morning, on a canvas fix feet in length, the 
 portrayal of an hiftorical fubjed, ' The Affaffination of 
 Marion Dufrene, captain of a fire-fliip, at the Bay of the 
 Iftes, New Zealand, the 13th of Auguft, 1772.' He took 
 the account of the affaffination from that publifiied by 
 
<^ msmoi%, 
 
 Crozat, the fecond in command to Dufrene, and he was 
 aided by the Iketches which he had made on the fpot of 
 favages, trees, fruit, fifh, fifhing, and warlike implements. 
 The preliminary drawing, which he fent to the Salon of 
 1848, has been preferved. It is at once original and 
 forced. It is evident that it is the work of a hand fur- 
 nifhed with precife and accurate knowledge of fubjedl, but 
 wanting in power of manipulation. It is not worthy of 
 a place befide his other works, his paftels, his minute 
 fketches taken from nature for the purpofe of his etchings, 
 nor the fine ftates of thofe etchings themfelves. Meryon 
 next attempted to work out the compofition in oils. At 
 the outfet he found himfelf face to face with difficulties. 
 He was difcouraged, and left the canvas to eflay another 
 fubjedt, this time a purely allegorical one, infpired by the 
 events of the revolution of February. Here again he was 
 perforce compelled to halt midway, with the refult that he 
 gave it up and entered the ftudio of M. E. Blery, the 
 engraver. 
 
 It was foon found out that he fufFered from that 
 affeftion in his fight known as Daltonifm, a difeafe much 
 commoner than was fuppofed before fcience pra6lically 
 difcovered its effeds. He could not diftinguifti the 
 ripe fruit from the leaves in a cherry-tree or a currant- 
 bufh. On his palette, in his box of paftels, he miftook 
 red for yellow, pink for green ; while certain colours, fuch 
 for inftance as pure carmine, gold, cobalt, lapis lazuli, 
 ftruck his fenfeof vifion moft powerfully and pleafingly. 
 This notwithftanding he had a moft delicate faculty of 
 diftinguiftiing colours. 
 
 * One day,' fo one of his fellow-officers told me, * we 
 were fhooting fea-gulls from the quarter-deck. 
 
 * " What colour do you make out their breafts to be ?'* 
 afked Meryon. 
 
 * I replied, " A fpotlefs white." 
 
lo CHA%LSS ^16%r0^. 
 
 '"You're wrong ; the colour's an inimitable rofe." 
 
 '"That's impoffible !" faid I ; "however, we'll foon 
 fee." And I covered the bird — fhot — the fea-gull fell on 
 the bridge, and I rufhed forward triumphantly to examine 
 its breaft. It was true ; its colour was in reality a falmon- 
 coloured rofe, of a tint certainly inimitable.' 
 
 Meryon was, however, not fo happy with his colours 
 in painting. I have a large paftel of his, a corvette 
 executing a difficult manoeuvre. The vefTel appears to 
 {kim over the top of the waves ; its fpreading fails Hken 
 it to a huge bird flying before the ftorm. Meryon has 
 touched up the fpray which dances around and Ihakes 
 againft the fides of the vefTel with red^ no doubt intending 
 to imitate the bluey -green of mid-ocean.* The error is 
 unmlflakable. 
 
 One Englifh and two French artifls impreffed him 
 more vividly than all the reft — 'exciting all my fympathies.' 
 Thefe were Eugene Delacroix, Decamps, and Hogarth. 
 He had feen this latter's work during a fhort ftay he had 
 made in England, at the time when he decided to leave his 
 profefTor in painting, M. Phelippes. 
 
 He then alfo made a fhort excurfion into Normandy, to 
 Forges-les-Eaux, Eure. From thence he brought back a 
 few fketches of fcenery. He alfo went to Bourges. 
 
 * I there found,' fo he wrote, ' in the ftreets, on the 
 outfide of the houfes, moft curious efFecfls of conftrudion, 
 principally of a kind which is rapidly difappearing becaufe 
 it is not counted of fufficient importance to be either 
 reftored or preferved.' Of thefe he took fketches with 
 much avidity, and, in fadt, returned two years afterwards 
 (1850-51) to finifh them on the fpot. Several of them 
 he etched. 
 
 * This pifture, which comprifes the real and the fantaftic, has been 
 lithographed wondroufly well by M. Theophile Chauvel. 
 
<iA mB3/lOI%. II 
 
 Whilft at M. Blery's, Meryon confined himfelf to 
 copying, fuch, for inftance, as a portrait of M. Blery from 
 a drawing of Eugene Buttura, a miniature of Chrift 
 imitated from Philip of Champagne, copies of De 
 Loutherbourg, Stephano delia Bella, Salvator Rofa, Karel 
 du Jardin. But the one who carried him away, and who 
 made him an etcher, was Rene Zeeman. He found, 
 and bought for a few fous, in the boxes which the fellers 
 of engravings fet before their doors, and which have been of 
 enormous fervice to young, indigent artifts, fome views of 
 Paris and fome maritime fcenes publiflied in 1650. He 
 was ftruck by the dexterous clearnefs of the lines made 
 with the needle, with the quietnefs of the tone, and the 
 brilliancy of the biting. He caught his ftyle, and, as a 
 confequence, it characterifes the firft half of his work, which 
 ends with the plate called the Rue Pirouette aux Halles. 
 
 Six months was the duration of his ftay with M. Blery. 
 Already his brain was flightly affeded. He had fallen 
 defperately in love with the daughter of the proprietor of 
 a reftaurant where he took his meals, * above all things on 
 account of her charming voice.' But her parents would 
 not hear of him. So, love-fick, he wandered through 
 the ftreets of old Paris, of the old city fo teeming with 
 intereft, fo g'rand in its buildings, with their maflive old 
 windows framed in clinging leafage, and their lines broken 
 up by turrets, and {landing out with their pointed roofs 
 againft the (ky. From the window of his dark garret in the 
 Rue Saint Etienne-du-Mont, which followed on to one 
 another like the cabins in a vefTel, he conceived the plan 
 of that fet of etchings of Paris by which his fame is ever- 
 laftingly afTured, and the firft one on which he began was 
 Le Petit Pont. 
 
 His plan of working was this. He feldom made a 
 complete drawing on the fpot. He fixed on his fubjed:, 
 and then he went patiently every day at the fame hour. 
 
12 CHJ%L6S ^MSIirO^, 
 
 and drew on fmall pieces of paper ftudies of the various 
 portions, rigoroufly exa6l in their details. Thefe he either 
 ftuck together when he returned home, or elfe made a 
 drawing from them. The fergents-de-ville who made 
 him move on, the curious ones who gathered round him, 
 irritated him exceedingly, and made his work very unplea- 
 fant to himfelf. He ufed a very hard, fine- pointed 
 pencil. He held this pencil as one holds a burin, and he 
 worked with it in light and incifive ftrokes from the 
 bottom upwards. He had been noticeable, when in the 
 navy, for his finely-made yet ftrong hands. His keennefs 
 of fight was remarkable. He could diftinguifh the fineft 
 architedlural details in a building as well as if he had ufed 
 a telefcope. The affedion of his fight before mentioned 
 only impaired its capacity fo far as colours were concerned; 
 it altered none of the other qualities of the fenfe, and con- 
 fequently had no effedl on that fl:rong feeling of his which 
 was either inherent or elfe fl:rongly developed by obferva- 
 tion and pradtice; namely, the relations which exifl; between 
 light and finade, between half tones and reflexions. 
 
 Meryon, however, always had a tendency to exaggerate 
 the fiiadows. Were his firft plate, Le Petit Ponty taken 
 by itfelf, one would be led to the conclufion that he had 
 not yet learned to gauge the ftrength of the acid, and 
 that he had in confequence over-bitten it. But the whole 
 fet of Paris Views is imbued with a fi:rength of tone which 
 is not at all reprefentative of Paris, efpecially of that old 
 Paris, which is always grey, and rather tender than fevere. 
 His finefl; work for quality of reflefted light is the Galerie 
 Notre Dame, the mofl; beautiful in efi^e6t of fky is the Pont 
 an Change, whilfl: the Abfide Notre Dame is the moft re- 
 markable for the harmony which reigns throughout. In 
 that work he has fiiown that, already a poet and a 
 draughtfman, he was alfo a great colourift. 
 
 Meryon, in continuing his fet of Paris Views, bound 
 
^A ^M&^MOI%^. 1 3 
 
 himfelf down to a principle never heretofore laid down, or 
 likely in the future to be profefTed by any fchool, which 
 proves that mafters in art will always be modifying its fet 
 laws: he wrote in 1853 to a diftinguifhed artift, who had 
 been one of the firft to recognife the originality and the 
 value of his efforts, — ^La PompCy Notre Dame, may be taken 
 as being a faithful reprodudlion of that building, which, it 
 is faid, will foon be numbered with the paft. The towers 
 of Notre Dame are (lightly higher than in reality, but I 
 confider this a permiffible licenfe, fince it is often in this 
 way that the mind works when the objedl is no longer 
 before our eyes, and the pidlure is compofed from 
 memory.' 
 
 He did not hefitate (and, as a confequence of his bold- 
 nefs, his work is extraordinarily full of life) to take two 
 Iketches ; one, for example, from the roadway, and the 
 other from below, on the quay, to join them, and thus to 
 treat the fpedator to a double view, and really afford him 
 from the fame point of fight what he would in nature only 
 fee in fucceffive ftages. See Le Petit Pont (38). 
 
 His firft proofs he ftruck off either himfelf or with the 
 affiftance of that {killed printer, Auguftus Delatre, at his 
 rooms in the Rue St. Etienne-du-Mont. He printed 
 them on a green verge paper, very thick, which added to 
 their romantic afped, with a biftre ink of excellent com- 
 pofition; that is to fay, which filled the lines well, and did 
 not flatten when the proof dried. He alfo ufed feveral 
 quires of old verge paper, whofe yellow tone feemed to 
 impart funlight to the proofs ftruck off on it. 
 
 'The beft proofs,' fo he wrote to me in 1863, 'thofe, in fa6t, 
 which muft be confulted if an etching is to be properly judged of, 
 are thofe printed regularly ; that is to fay, when the plate is 
 thoroughly wiped, the lines alone retaining the ink. The adlual 
 work is then fairly feen. Thofe, on the contrary, in which the 
 ink by its diftribution over the plate co-operates in the effeft, 
 
14 CHA%LSS ^ME^nXOD^ 
 
 fliould be rejedted, as lending a fi6litious aid. When I firft 
 ftarted I let myfelf oftentimes be led wrong through following 
 what I know now to have been bad advice ; but latterly I have 
 come to the conclufion only to print in the ufual or proper 
 manner, which really required more fkill on the part of the 
 printer. There are, of courfe, cafes where thefe proofs are really 
 attra6live, but they are exceptions which prove the rule. In 
 any cafe it does not apply to my etchings, which are too fimple 
 and methodical in their manner of execution to require it.' 
 
 Meryon was not fond of imparting his methods of 
 procedure. The following, however, are fome details 
 which artifts will read with intereft : — 
 
 * The varnifti fliould be covered With ordinary black filk, of 
 a double thicknefs and new. In varnifliing the plate, the varniflied 
 fide fliould be held downwards (however awkward it may be), fo 
 that the duft may not fettle on it. When this varnifli comes to be 
 blackened, care muft be taken not to put the flame too near the 
 plate, or the varnifli may be burnt. It is ufually beft before 
 deciding on a varnifli to be certain that it is in good condition, 
 which it is if it remains greafy, or rather if it preferves the 
 confiflency of ordinary wax. The dabber ought alfo to be of 
 double thicknefs, and the cotton which is enclofed in it new and 
 free from duft. Beyond everything, care muft be taken to remove 
 greafe or dirt from the plate; for that, nothing is better than whitening 
 and water. There is a fimple way of afcertaining the degree to 
 which the plate fliould be heated — namely, to place upon it, 
 whilft it is held over the flame of the fpirit-lamp, the varnifli and 
 the dabber, when this latter will gradually lofe its ftiffnefs. Laftly, 
 I faid that it was neceflliry that the filk fliould be double for the 
 ball of varnifli, fo it is for that ; but for the dabber, if the fdk is 
 ftrong, it can be ufed of a fingle thicknefs. When the plate is 
 fmoked, it is necefl'ary that it fliould be well heated, otherwife 
 the varnifli will burn, in which cafe it becomes brittle and lofes 
 its quality.' 
 
 Thus was the Paris fet completed, not without innu- 
 merable obftacles, but yet with ever-increafing vigour and 
 power. Included in it were the frontifpiece, the verfes 
 which elucidated the hidden meanings of certain of the 
 
<iA msmoi%. 15 
 
 views, and the tailpieces. Meryon carried the fet to the 
 printfeller, Vigneres, and to Rochoux, and for the fifteen 
 erchings, eleven large and four fmall, he afked the fum of 
 thirty francs ! 
 
 They met with no fuccefs, fave with certain amateurs 
 and artifts of refined taftes, and with certain critics, fuch as 
 Charles Baudelaire, Theophile Gautier, Paul Mantz, and 
 M. Burger (then an exile). But in this fmall circle the 
 fuccefs was a real one. The juries at the Salon could 
 not fee their merits. They refufed, in 1853, the 
 Galerie de Notre Dame and the Rue des Toiles ! And 
 though he exhibited on fix occafions he never received 
 a medal. 
 
 Of an extremely fenfitive nature, endowed with a fl:rong 
 will, the pupil of no fchool, Meryon had taken the path 
 pointed out by the fchool of romance, and which later on 
 developed into naturalifm. He tranflated, with that clear 
 view which French genius always claims, the poetry, 
 myfterious and grand, of that old Paris which it was 
 referved to the children of the fecond empire to fee ruth- 
 leflly disfigured and deftroyed. Under his needle, the 
 architedlure, which had hitherto been only rendered by the 
 fevere tracings of the archited, or by the fummary in 
 water-colours of the decorator, became what a landfcape 
 does under the pencil of the mafter of his art — namely, 
 a Poem. He, as it were, borrowed of the reality only its 
 features ; he preferved the charaderiftic details of the 
 confi:rudion and affixed to them the refledtions of his 
 melancholy or the fecrets of his enthufiaftic mind. With- 
 out fenfibly modifying the appearance of the building, 
 he invefl:ed it with both focial and hifiorical connexions; 
 as, for inftance, in his etching of the building of the 
 Morgue, which, without in reality altering, he drew in the 
 likenefs of a tomb. Thus his work has a twofold value. 
 It takes its proper place in the portfolios of the colledors 
 
1 6 CHA1(LSS ,SM6%rOS^C 
 
 of hiftorical documents. It alfo properly adorns the walls 
 of the artift's ftudio. 
 
 In turning over his etchings, one is aftonifhed at the 
 mafs of matter which there really is in Paris for the poet 
 who ever contemplates it as a real and living being. The 
 large fpaces of the quays, the river enlivened by the moving 
 vefTels, the excited and tumultuous afpedt of the ftreets, 
 the fhadows carried over the maffy walls, the windows 
 aligned and almoft touching, like the cells in a honey- 
 comb, the roofs and innumerable chimneys ftanding out 
 againft the iky, — what interefting matter for ftudy ! No 
 artift had ever before looked at Paris in this way, or had 
 thought of thus tranflating its innumerable graces. 
 Meryon, indeed, belonged rather to the middle epochs 
 than to our matter-of-fadl and bufinefs-like age. There- 
 fore it was that he fo eafily reconftruded, in the midft of 
 the realities of the prefent, the probable appearances of the 
 paft. On the earth we fee tall females talking to, gigantic 
 workmen ; above, the flowers and creepers ifluing from 
 the balconies make frameworks to the windows ; above 
 that again the chimneys pour forth heavy wreaths of 
 fmoke, and higher {lill birds follow amidft the clouds the 
 quiet afcent of the balloon * Speranza.' 
 
 Yet, again, he had the rare gift which has more than 
 once imparted youth to a fchool, namely, the gift of orna- 
 mental drawing, which without an efibrt can create what 
 are ufually called ' arabefques,' and which can only refult 
 from the alliance of a vivid imagination with an expert 
 hand. The Petite Pompe^ Notre Dame, and the Addre/s of 
 Rocbuux, are beautiful examples of finenefs, clearnefs, and 
 fantafy. They come like gleams of light in the clouded 
 Iky of his brain. 
 
 Did a certain notoriety — we hardly dare to apply the 
 word ^ fuccefs ' — amongfl: the group of young artifts who 
 were bringing about a revival of the loft art of etching 
 
^ svLsmoi%. 17 
 
 bring any alleviation to his laborious exiftence ? Alas ! 
 no. He had fpent the money left him by his mother. 
 He had not even ever gained from the jury at the Salon 
 a medal which he could have taken to the pawnbroker. 
 The Imperial Print-room at the Louvre was adlually in 
 ignorance of his exiftence. The dealer in etchings, 
 who now-a-days enriches the etcher known to fame, 
 and gives a livelihood even to the unknown, was not in 
 exiftence. 
 
 Meryon was almoft ftarving, when, whilft on his way 
 to depofit the regulation proofs at the office of the 
 Minifter of the Interior, he made the acquaintance of the 
 librarian, M. Jules Niel. This man, noted for his re- 
 finement and taftes, an ecledic amateur, who loved with 
 an equal love the French mafters of the fixteenth century 
 and the romantic works of Eugene Delacroix, grafped in a 
 moment the value of Meryon's work ; he interefted 
 himfelf in his life, obtained for him the purchafe of 
 feveral fets of his etchings by the Minifter, and orders for 
 copies to be made after hiftorical drawings : in one word, 
 he evinced for him the fincereft and moft ufeful intereft. 
 One may in truth fay that he prolonged his life. For 
 all this he was repaid only by the moft cruel infults ; but 
 everything muft be condoned in an unconfcious being. 
 
 During the winter of 1855-56 the Duke of Aremberg 
 had feen at Montpelier the feries of Views of Paris. He 
 was fo imprefted thereby that he fent, in 1857, to Paris 
 for the artift, who was then worn out with work and 
 mifery, inftalled him in the village which adjoined his 
 chateau at Enghien, and afked him to reproduce, as and 
 when he liked, certain of the views in the park which he 
 thought the moft pidurefque. He bought for him a 
 daguerreotype camera, and made him take leflbns at 
 Bruflels in the management of what was then a novel 
 inftrument. But Meryon's mental difeafe foon ftiowed 
 
 c 
 
 U 
 
1 8 CHA^I^LSS S[d6%rOf^C' 
 
 itfelf with extreme incoherence, and he returned to Paris 
 in the month of March, 1858, hardly mafter of himfelf. 
 He had taken a few photographs, the feledlion of which 
 fhowed the fpecial tafte which he difplayed in everything. 
 One fees the chateau (which, for the matter of that, has 
 but little importance) beyond a park watered by a lake 
 — a Pavilion built in a pure Italian ftyle — firft photo- 
 graphed entire, then only as to the portico — then a clump 
 of trees : 
 
 ' Thefe trees remind me of Leonardo da Vinci,' he faid, fpeaking 
 of an efFe6t of light. 'But after all,' he continued, 'however 
 fedu6tive thefe ftudies may appear, in reality they are ufelefs. 
 For how can you complete the whole when, as in this inftance, it 
 is incomplete, fave as to a third, which if you change, all the 
 reft falls to pieces ? Befides, the lines of perfpedtive are invari- 
 ably falfe. In fa6l,' and on this he dwelt moft particularly, ' a 
 photograph ought not to, nor ever can, enable an artift to difpenfe 
 with a fketch. It can only aid him, whilft he works, by aflurance 
 and confirmation, by fuggefting to him the general chara6ler of 
 the a6luality which he has ftudied, and oftentimes by difcovering 
 to him minor details which he had overlooked ; but it can never 
 replace ftudies with the pencil.' 
 
 As an inftance of his ftate of mind at this time, I may 
 here mention that one day M. Bracquemond went to fee 
 him. He was out. His friends had taken the key to the 
 porter. Meryon not returning, the vifitor took a pencil, 
 and left as a vifiting-card a flcetch on the wall — a fparrow 
 with open beak darting down on a fly. Some days later, 
 Augufte Delatre, admiring this flcetch, and feeing that 
 Meryon did not reply, aflced him if he had any complaint 
 againft any one. 'If you care to know,* replied he, 
 roughly, ' read on that wall my fate. I can no more 
 avoid what is coming upon me than that fly can that bird.' 
 His artiftic feeling did not pafs away, but he became daily 
 more unfociable. La Rue des Mauvais Garfons, that 
 mafterpiece of myfterious truth, like a mouth that makes 
 
<tA msmoi% 19 
 
 one underftand words without articulating them, is the 
 elegant expreflion of the ftate of mind in which he then 
 was. In the following month Meryon removed to the 
 upper portion of the Faubourg St. Jacques, to a little 
 fummer-houfe which belonged to the mother of M. Leon 
 Gaucherel, the painter and engraver. Here, throughout 
 the day, he tilled every portion of a fmall garden with 
 feverifh adivity, not to plant and fow, but in fearch 
 of imaginary bodies myfterioufly buried there. His nights 
 were terrible. This kind, inofFenfive, generous man, 
 imagined his bed turned into a boat fighting againft the 
 tempeft on an ocean whofe waves were blood. But now 
 and again he worked healthily. He drew in paftels a 
 corvette falling off from the wind, a large codfifhing 
 vefTel, and the fhip i> Vengeur llowly and filently finking 
 in the waves without a living creature on board, its 
 colours nailed to the maft, amidfl a gorgeous funfet 
 whofe rays form its apotheofis.* 
 
 On his return from Belgium Meryon went to live in 
 a miferable little hotel in the Rue des Fofle St. Jacques. 
 There Delatre would come and tend him. But this was 
 no eafy tafk. Meryon refufed to leave his bed. He 
 threatened with a piftol thofe who came near him. 
 
 On the i2th of May, 1858, the day after Flameng had 
 taken his portrait (fee p. 29), two officers of the law feized 
 Meryon, who, without refiflance, allowed himfelf to be 
 carried off to the afylum at Charenton St. Maurice. He 
 was then thirty-feven years old. In the certificate, taken 
 twenty-four hours after admiffion (a Government report, 
 which is drawn up after the firfl examination of the patient), 
 Dr. Calmel declared him to be * fuffering from melancholy 
 madnefs, complicated by delufions.' A fortnight after- 
 
 * Among the moft beautiful drawings ever executed by Meryon is 
 Noon off Cape Horn. 
 
20 CHARLES ,msi{ro^ 
 
 wards they reported a continuance of the madnefs. Little 
 by little, however, the difcipline of the afylum and good 
 living, following upon a life of ftarvation, produced a 
 beneficial effedl upon the patient, and hopes were even en- 
 tertained of a cure. He gained the friendfhip of all thofe 
 who took care of him ; he was fo gentle and polite. 
 He fpent long hours in pulhing a wheelbarrow in the 
 garden. A ftudio had been given to him in order that he 
 might paint, engrave, and model. When M. E. Viollet- 
 le-Duc brought him his fketch, '^he Ruins of Pierrefonds 
 (fee No. 23 in the Catalogue), he found him in his little 
 cell occupied in making drawings in perfpe^live. Delatre, 
 to whofe care were entrufted the coppers of the Paris feries, 
 ftruck off fome imprelTions of them for the paper called 
 VArtifie, and thus procured for him fome help. Thefe 
 imprefTions were printed on imitation Chinefe paper, of a 
 wretched grain and a leaden hue, but they fhow the final 
 flate of the plate, and for this reafon they deferve to be 
 colledled. One can recognife them by the roofs being 
 generally left white, as if they had a flrong light fhining 
 on them. Now-a-days, dealers who are not overfcrupu- 
 lous, feparate the Chinefe paper from the fmall-margined 
 mounts on which they were fixed, remount them on 
 verge paper, imitating the plate mark, and felling them 
 for a great price as early flates — as the chefs-d'ceuvre^ in 
 fadt, which they formerly colledted at five fous each from 
 the portfolios of the fecond-hand bookfellers on the quays. 
 
 On the 25th Auguft, 1859, Charles Meryon obtained 
 a holiday of three weeks, and was put into the hands of 
 M. Felix Foucou, with the permifTion of his old fhip 
 comrade, M. A. de Salicis, now captain of a frigate, and 
 Principal of the Ecole Poly technique. They were to take 
 him into Brittany. His releafe meant his ruin. 
 
 It was only towards 1856 that I knew him. I was 
 then fludying drawing and painting with M. ChafTal- 
 
<tA msmoi%. 21 
 
 Duflurgey, decorative painter attached to the Imperial 
 manufadory of Gobelin tapeftry. I ufed on a Sunday to 
 ftudy etching with an engraver, a very intelligent man, 
 but with little talent, called Augufte Peguegnot. He 
 had engraved fome pidurefque but heavy views of Paris 
 or its environs — A Farm in the Rue du Cherche — Midi — the 
 horrible abattoirs of Montfaucon. He it was who firft 
 fhowed me Meryon's etchings, near whom he had lived. 
 The Rue St. Etienne du Mont aftonifhed, nay, almoft terri- 
 fied me. For my profeflbr was of the ftridleft fe6t of the 
 Lyons fchool, who, following the teaching of their founder, 
 Ingres, did not tolerate the leaft licenfe in colours, nay, 
 even banifhed ' reflediions * from their work. 
 
 When I efcaped from him I went to learn by heart 
 in the Print-room the works of Rembrandt, Claude 
 Lorrain, the matters of the fchool of Fontainebleau, and 
 of a French mafter very unjuftly forgotten, Etienne 
 Delaulne. 
 
 As regards Meryon's etchings, the feverity of the 
 drawing foftered my youthful ardour, but the ftrength of 
 his black and the ingenuity of his compofition appeared 
 to me fimply heretical in their defiance of all rule. But 
 when I left art for literature, and found myfelf amongft 
 the colleagues whom M. Charles Blanc, formerly my 
 mafter and my friend, had got together for the ftaff of the 
 Gazette des Beaux- Art s^ I thought of Meryon with the 
 indulgence of a St. Anthony grown old, and fo caring 
 little for the flefhly temptations which crofied his path. 
 Meryon came one day to the office of the Gazette des 
 Beaux-Arts^ to off^er a plate. La Mai/on du Muficien a 
 Bourges. But it was not like him ; his ftyle had loft its 
 vigour, point, and force, and its myfterious influence over 
 mind and eye. It was no longer of this Meryon that 
 Vidlor Hugo could write to me as he did from the 
 Guernfey rock : — 
 
2 2 CH<i^'RLSs msi{ro5Ni 
 
 * Thefe etchings are magnificent things. We muft not allow 
 this fplendid imagination to be worfted in the ftruggle in which it 
 is engaged with the Infinite whilft Itudying Nature or Paris. 
 Strengthen him by all the encouragements poflible. The breath 
 of the univerfe breathes through all his works, and makes his 
 etchings more than pidtures — vifions.' 
 
 Even the copies that he made, fuch as La P offer elky or 
 La Vue du Vancien LouvrCy had neither the exadnefs of 
 the grand Salle des Fas Perdus, nor the effed; of the 
 Pont Neufet la Samaritaine. The Rue des Chantres^ which 
 he did fo that he might perpetuate the beautiful fpire that 
 M. Viollet-le-Duc hadjuft eredled at the interfedion of the 
 roofs of Notre Dame, fhows fome of the beft of his old 
 qualities. But the portraits which he executed for M. Ben- 
 jamin Fillon (who fhowed great courtefy to him in all his 
 tranfadions) coft him an infinity of trouble without propor- 
 tionate refults. It was the fame thing with his Souvenirs 
 de Voyage. They certainly fhow greater pains in their exe- 
 cution, more truth in the drawing of the places and in the 
 epifodes which they contain, than is ufually to be met with 
 in the engravings which are to be found in books of travel, 
 but they were not fufficient to increafe his reputation as a 
 great artift, nor even to fuftain it. The fcenes which he 
 introduced into the Rue du College Henri IV., and the 
 Minifiere de la Marine y were the figns of an imagination no 
 longer under control. 
 
 From this time, too, his method of working altered 
 for the worfe. Timidity was apparent in his biting. He 
 preferred to ftrengthen failing portions of his plates by work 
 with the burin, which, if it has more brilliancy, certainly has 
 lefs animation than effeds produced by the acid. It is as 
 regards this latter manner that Mr. Seymour Haden's 
 opinion of Meryon is fpecially applicable ; Mr. Haden 
 being one of the few who is competent, both as an artift 
 
<iA sv[esv[oi%. 23 
 
 and as a critic, to place himfelf alongfide of fo great a 
 mafter.* In 1873 he wrote to me: — 
 
 ' Certes Meryon eft le " maitre fur cuivre," le plus original et 
 le plus artifte que votre pays a produit. Je ne dit " eaufortifte," 
 car il n'a ni I'elan, ni la facilite manuelle, ni rimprovifation, ni cette 
 faculte finguliere de la feledlion quant aux lignes eflentielles qui 
 diftinguent I'eaufortifte par excellence. Re'veur, reflechifleur, pio- 
 cheur, travailleur penible, fe fervant conftamment du burin, 11 
 eft plutot habile graveur qu'aquafortifte furprenant, mais *' artifte 
 graveur " bien entendu et de la plus haute diftincSlioa' 
 
 I had the pleafure of being inftrumental in getting him 
 feveral commiflions for plates from the GazettCy alfo from 
 a few amateurs, and at laft from the Imperial Print-room 
 for the View of the Ancient Louvre. Mr. de Nieuwerkerke, 
 the principal Diredor of Mufeums, behaved in this laft 
 matter with diftinguifhed courtefy. 
 
 Meryon at this time retouched the coppers of his Paris 
 fet with the burin, thereby rendering them heavy and dull, 
 ftruck off fome thirty impreflions from each, and deftroyed 
 them. 
 
 I went as often as I could do fo without indifcretion to 
 pafs a fhort time with him in his little atelievy No. 20 in 
 the Rue Duperre. It was half filled with a wooden printing- 
 prefs which the police allowed him to keep, and from 
 which he ftruck off^ his trial proofs. The walls were bare 
 with the exception of a portrait of his friend Decourtive, 
 in a frame which he had carved with a penknife out of 
 a piece of cork, and which he had painted with water- 
 colours ; and a fern-leaf, to which he attached fome fort of 
 fuperftitious reverence. 
 
 I once furprifed him in the adl of waftiing the room 
 with his feet bared, although it was winter. He was in a 
 
 *Mr. Hamerton has alfo fpoken well, and at length, of M^ryon's 
 genius; but his work. Etching and Etchers, is too well known to need 
 quoting here. 
 
24 CH^^^LSs msi{ro^. 
 
 good humour, and I fat down near him by the window. 
 He made me fit for the hands for two or three of the 
 portraits that he had been taking for the work Poitou et 
 Vendee. We talked at length, he of the undeferved ills of 
 his childhood ; of his mother, whom he adored ; of her 
 mother, who had had a difaftrous influence on her child, 
 having taken her to England after the events of 1815, 
 where fhe had cultivated her beauty more than her artiftic 
 faculties ; of a fifl;er older than himfelf ; and finally of a 
 father who had made in England a rich marriage, and 
 had ever fince ceafed to think of him. I ufed to change 
 the converfation when he began to talk of his enemies and 
 of the fpies who followed him in the ftreets. His mind 
 quieted, his thoughts took a lengthy flight to the rocky 
 coafl:s of New Caledonia, where he faid he had met a 
 race of favages, handfome, heroic, intelligent, where 
 he had breathed an air ever laden with balm, where, 
 if he could, he fliould like one day to return to finifli life 
 free and happy, following the example of feveral of his 
 comrades. Then he was on the wing again, lofing him- 
 felf in dark clouds. Somehow I always left him more 
 worried and difcouraged than I found him. 
 
 He never of his own free will touched the fubje6l of 
 art. He appreciated beyond everything the work of Brac- 
 quemond, but he knew hardly anything about art, though 
 he refponded to any quefl:ion with a politenefs which, in a 
 lefs outfpoken nature, would have been taken for irony. 
 He had, however, an innate faculty of judging rightly. 
 One day he faid to me refpedling the portrait of Pierre 
 de Riviere, in which he had placed as an allegorical fur- 
 rounding a wheel crufiiing the head and hand of a fl:atue, — 
 
 ' At certain dates every work of art that is not, without a 
 doubt, worthy of prefervation, fliould be defl:royed. Of the 
 fculpture, mortar fliould be made by means of an enormous 
 cruflier. Of paintings they fliould make tarpaulins, fuch as the 
 
^ msmoi%, 25 
 
 (ailors cover packages with on board fliip. The artifts would be 
 the firft to lend themfelves to fuch a fcheme, for if they had, for 
 inftance, made a fecond-rate ftatue for the decoration of a monu- 
 ment, they would be enchanted to fee it replaced by a better. 
 The whole ^vorld would be the gainers by it, from the models 
 who pofe themfelves for the ftatues, or the cuftodians who watch 
 over them in the Mufeums, to the hewer of the ftone and the 
 draymen who tranfport it to the ftudio.' 
 
 * But,' I anfwered, * have you ever refleded, my dear 
 Meryon, as to who fhould compofe the jury to carry out 
 your fchemes ? ' Whereat he laughed fo immoderately as 
 to be heard in the ftreet ; for on the rare occafions when 
 he laughed it was the laughter of a child. 
 
 I had much trouble to obtain from him the biogra- 
 phical notes and the lift of his etchings, which I publifhed 
 in the Gazette des Beaux- Arts in 1863, He made me 
 promife only to mention as ftates thofe which he regarded 
 as charaderiftic. He afterwards annotated my work with 
 minute care in a feries of letters, of which all but 
 few, unfortunately, were incomprehenfible. A (hort time 
 afterwards he quarrelled with me, without any real or ap- 
 parent reafon, as he had with M. Neil. In his cafe he 
 pafTed an evening with him and his family. On the 
 morrow, on their meeting on the quays of the river, 
 Meryon advanced, refufed to fhake hands, and faid in the 
 coldeft of tones, * Vous etes un voleur !' To me he wrote 
 that I kept back in courfe of tranfmiftion the half of the 
 fum which the Government had fent him for his work 
 done for the Print-room ; and he made the fame charge 
 againft M. Rochoux, the printfeller, who had affifted 
 him with an infinite tad and forbearance.* 
 
 * Mr. Haden, in his Notes about Etching (The Fine Art Society), 
 mentions a fimilar inftance that occurred to him : * One day, though I 
 knew the difficulty of approaching him, I went to fee Meryon. I found 
 him in a litde room, high up on Montmartre, fcrupuloufly clean and 
 orderly ; a bed in one corner, a printing-prefs in another, a fingle chair 
 
26 CH<^'RL6s msi^ro^. 
 
 But mifery followed hard at his heels. He took his 
 meals at the meaneft of mean reftaurants, and he break- 
 fafted for a few fous off fruit and fifh cooked in milk and 
 flavoured with a few drops of vinegar. 
 
 It was impoffible to aflift him, though his friends 
 took the moil out-of-the-way means to accomplifh this 
 end. Thofe who watched over him had again to call in 
 medical advice, and Meryon was for the fecond time 
 placed in confinement on the 12th of October, 1866. 
 
 The obligatory certificate, taken twenty-four hours 
 after admiflion, reported ^ typemanie chronique avec 
 hallucination des principaux fens,' and the certificate at 
 the end of the firft fortnight ftated that there were ' des 
 fignes de delire partiel.' An obftinacy of will even to the 
 point of death is the principal refult of this flage of the 
 difeafe. On certain days, however, he regained his fenfes. 
 
 and fmall table in another, and in the fourth an eafel with a plate pinned 
 againft it, on which he was ftanding at work. He did not refent my vifit, 
 but, with a courtefy quite natural, offered me, and apologifed for, the 
 lingle chair, and at once began to difcufs the refources and charms of 
 Etching. He was alfo good enough to allow me to take away with me a 
 few impreffions of his work, for which, while his back was turned, I was 
 no lefs fcrupulous to leave upon the table, what I was fure was more than 
 the dealers would then give him for them ; and fo we parted, the bell of 
 friends. But what followed (hows how, even then, his mind was un- 
 hinged. I had walked fully two miles in the direftion of Paris, and was 
 entering a fhop in the Rue de Richelieu, when I became aware that 
 Meryon, much agitated, was following me. He faid he muft have back 
 the proofs I had bought of him ; that they were of a nature to com- 
 promife him, and that from what he knew of " the Etched Work which 
 I called my own," he was determined I fhould not take them to England 
 with me ! I, of courfe, gave them to him, and he went his way ; and it 
 was not till after his death that I became aware that he had, about the 
 fame time, written to the Editor of the Gazette des Beaux-Arti, to 
 caution him againft being taken in by me, and to impart to him the 
 convidlion that the plates which I pretended to have done were not done 
 by me at all, but that, doubtlefs, I had difcovered and bought them, and 
 (igned and adopted them as my own !' 
 
<^ .3183101%^, 27 
 
 and on one of thefe his dodlor took him to vifit the 
 Exhibition of 1867, but a violent thunderftorm which 
 occurred whilft they were there brought on at once a 
 return of his exaltation. He could no longer work, 
 though he wrote without cefTation long and incoherent 
 memoirs. He allowed himfelf to die of exhauftion, 
 believing himfelf to be Chrift held captive by the Pha- 
 rifees, and being unwilling to wrong the feeble and outcaft 
 by taking their food. 
 
 His lamp of life flickered out on the 14th of February, 
 1868, an hour after mid-day. Certain of his friends 
 were informed of the fad, and gathered round his grave. 
 I had previoufly feen him in his coffin. He reminded 
 one of thofc mafks of wax which the French artifts of the 
 middle ages moulded from the face before it was yet cold, 
 then touched up and coloured and placed on the bier in 
 the chapelle ardente. His fquare and projedling forehead 
 feemed as if it had been protruded by the inceffant 
 workings of the brain. His lips, large, thin, and clenched, 
 fpoke volumes of that indefatigable and undauntable will 
 which was fo evident in his work, either as defigner or 
 engraver. His brown eyes were flill wide open, and 
 feemed to anxioufly and eagerly fcan the horizon for fome 
 invifible objed. So looks the failor when his veffel is 
 finking, and he anxioufly wonders on what fort of a 
 fhore the driving waves will fliortly hurl their fpoil. 
 
 Meryon had belonged to the Reformed faith. The 
 hour, however, at which he was buried was the one at 
 which fervice was performed, and fo none of the minifl:ers 
 could attend. M. A. de Salicis, his old comrade in arms, 
 whofe name has often been mentioned in our fiiort memoir, 
 fpoke the following touching words : — 
 
 * Meryon is dead ! In this cold trench that eminent artifl: ends 
 the firft part of his 'exiftence. In the flefli we ftiall fee him no 
 more; but from to-day the Hiftory of Art will be incomplete 
 
28 CH^%L6S mS%70^. 
 
 without the name, for he was wanting in none of the qualifica- 
 tions requifite to fecure him a place in the illuftrious roll ; neither 
 in the talent, nor in, alas ! that other eflential — fuffering. Under 
 the rule and the impulfion of the unfeen God, Meryon facrificed 
 everything on His altar — youth's happy vifions, an enviable career, 
 a patrimony, health, reafon. Above this poor troubled barque, 
 at every inftant harried and urged onwards towards (hipwreck, 
 there always hovered and fung a bird, whofe hue was of the pureft 
 white. The barque has difappeared beneath the wave, but the 
 fpotlefs bird, typical of his foul, has flown upward. Let us to-day 
 forget to grieve for him who was called " Miferable Meryon," 
 for he will henceforward be called " Meryon the celebrated " on 
 earth, whilft the better part of him has already taken its place in 
 the ferene atmofphere of eternity. What matters it now that he, 
 like the reft of us poor human creatures, bore about with him 
 imperfections, and if life was to him a time of fore trial ? He has 
 even now expiated that, and in the unknown world above there, he 
 is enjoying that — the leaft of happinefTes — which on earth he always 
 ftrove for and never attained j for he now has — Reji.'' 
 
 Charles Meryon refts in the cemetery of Charenton- 
 Saint-Maurice, beneath a large flab of copper, on which 
 his friend Bracquemond, his valiant comrade in art, 
 engraved his titles and a mournful epitaph. 
 
 PariSi 1 863-1 879. 
 
 Three portraits enable us to form an idea of Meryon's 
 perfonal appearance. The firfl (dated 1852, by Bracque- 
 mond) refembles a medallion carved in ftone. The hair 
 and the beard are long ; the nofe retroufTe (this latter 
 feature he is faid to have inherited from his mother) ; 
 the features bony ; the forehead fl:raight and very lofty. 
 The fecond portrait (alfo by Bracquemond) is a three- 
 quarter length. Meryon, whofe coat is buttoned, is feated 
 on a chair, the arm refting on its back. This pidture was 
 drawn from life diredtly on to the varniflied plate. The 
 
^ mS^MOI%. 29 
 
 features are more ftrongly marked in this fecond portrait 
 than in the firft, which Meryon preferred. The eyes have 
 a penetrating, reftlefs look, like that of a fawn who fees 
 that it is watched. He was of middle height, nervous, 
 and fupple, and I never knew him anything elfe but 
 very thin. 
 
 The third and laft portrait, ufually known as * Meryon 
 Mad,' was taken by Flameng during the interval which 
 elapfed between his return from Belgium and his firft 
 confinement. Flameng, who could not fee too much of 
 this ftrange, attractive face, came with a drawing-board, 
 a fheet of grey paper, and fome black crayons, to the Rue 
 FofTe Saint Jacques, and although Meryon did not lend 
 himfelf to it, he drew a portrait full of charafter. Meryon 
 in his fhirt, a large black cravat round his neck, is half 
 fitting upon a little iron bed ; one of his knees raifes the 
 counterpane and ferves to fupport the arm on which refts 
 his head ; the other arm props up his body. The dark 
 outline of his head, with its ftiff and ftubborn hair, is 
 forcibly thrown on the wall by the flanting rays of the 
 lamp. The face, with features fharp and emaciated by 
 the failing which he voluntarily impofed on himfelf, has 
 the marks of fadnefs and irony.* 
 
 When this drawing was finiftied Meryon aiked to fee 
 It. He jumped out of bed and attempted to tear it to 
 pieces. Flameng fled, upfetting his chair in his flight. 
 
 * The original of this drawing, which has been reproduced by means 
 of lithography, is in the pofleffion of Mr. Seymour Haden. 
 
Complete De0Ctiptit)e Catalogue 
 
 OP 
 
 CHARLES MERYON'S WORKS. 
 
N.B. — The titles and names printed in italics are Meryon's 
 own, and are always found in fome one of the ftates, either in the 
 margin or in the body of the impreflion. The titles printed in 
 capitals and placed between inverted commas are names which 
 we have affixed to the various plates in order to diftinguifh them. 
 
 The meafurements are in inches. They are made between 
 the plate marks, or where thefe are not vifible, between the 
 boundary lines of the work. 
 
 Irregularities of orthography or punctuation are always followed 
 exactly, for they often, when fubfequently corredled, ferve as indi- 
 cations of different ftates. 
 
 The chronological order in which Meryon executed the work 
 is followed in the four principal divifions : — 
 
 1. The Etchings made after Documents, &c. which comprife 
 
 Nos. I to 26. 
 
 2. The Views of Paris which include Etchings, Nos. 27 to 53. 
 
 3. The Souvenirs de Voyages, comprifing Nos. 54 to 84. 
 
 4. Portraits, Nos. 85 to 97. 
 
ERRATA AND ADDENDA. 
 
 p. 34. Note at bottom : — Mr. P. Home (to whom I am indebted for many 
 of the fuggeftions contained in thefe Addenda) thinks the plate of 
 The Ewe to be Meryon's, from the faft that he has ufually feen it 
 printed on the fame fheet as The South-Sea Fijhers {\\). The 
 infcription fhould be 'oy6i. FV V A.\ i.e. Adrian Van der Velde 
 fecit 1670, reverfed. 
 
 P. 35, line 6 from bottom, yjr Cl6ment Jonghe read Clement de Jonghe. 
 
 P. 36. The firft ftates of The South-Sea Fijhers and Calais to Flujhing were 
 before the angles of the coppers were rounded off. 
 
 P. 39, line 7 from bottom, /or Gallery d'Apollon read Gallery of Apollo. 
 
 Mr. Home remarks as to No. 1 9, — * I have a trial proof before 
 any infcription : a finall portion of the plate at the top, in the 
 centre, is cleared as though intended for an infcription. With 
 the man fitting on the parapet at the right is another man con- 
 verfing — afterwards removed. The head of the man fifhing in the 
 foreground is not nearly finifhed.' 
 
 P. 44, line 2 from bottom, /or 4th read 3rd. 
 
 P. 45, line 3, /or Polydes read Polydes. 
 
 ,; line "Jjfor 21 read ji ; infert 'r' between imp. and des Feuillantines. 
 
 P. 48, line 5 from bottom : the words au Repu fhould be at the commence- 
 ment of the infcription. 
 
 P. 56. To the 3rd St. of Le Petit Pont, add, 'and with the bottom marginal 
 line.' 
 
 In the 4th St. the fpire on the right is flightly altered at the 
 point where the work meets the roof of the houfe in front. 
 
 P. 57. Between the 2nd and 3rd States of V Arche du Pont Notre Dame 
 there are intermediate ones : — 
 
 1. With the Title, but before the addrefs of Delatre and the 
 
 No. 3. 
 
 2. The fame as the 3rd State, but without the No. j. 
 
ERRJTA AND ADDENDA. 
 
 P. 60. Between the 4th and 5th States of La Tour de PHorlcge there are 
 impreffions having the infcriptions of the 4th State and the gleams 
 of light of the 5 th. 
 
 P. 63, laft \\nt,for 1 10 read \\, zndfor 80 read 3|-. 
 
 P. 64, line 10 from bottom, erafe the words 'probably unique.' 
 
 P. 66, line 8 from bottom, erafe the words * before the final title.* 
 
 P. 70. V Abjide, Sec. There is a State between the 2nd and 3rd, in which 
 the plate has been reworked and the date * mdcccliv.' removed. 
 
 P. 74, line 1 1 from bottom, y2?r Reuon read Pierron. 
 
 P. 92. College Henri IF. Mr. Home has an impreffion intermediate between 
 thofe in the ift and 3rd States, with the buildings and mountains 
 on the left, but no infcription. 
 
 „ line 7 from bottom, add the words, * 4th State.' 
 
 P. 93, line 4 from bottom, for 4th St. read 5th St. 
 
 The 4th State was alfo preceded by one which, inllead of the 
 Title, had merely Pierron's addrefs. 
 
 P. 94, line 3 from bottom. The verfe was alfo printed in red and in gold. 
 
CATALOGUE. 
 
 D 
 
 IVISION 3^. I. 
 
 d^ttljinffd maUe after 2Docinnent0, C^ngratinff^, 
 tetmffjj, 2Dra\j)(nff0, i^ainting^, or ^^otograp^is* 
 
 1. *La Sainte Face.' 
 
 After a miniature made by Mdlle. Elife Bruyere, a pupil of 
 Van Dael, from a painting of Philip of Champagne. This was 
 the firft attempt at etching made by Meryon, under the diredtion 
 of Monf. Blery. We have never feen but one impreffion. 
 
 h. 3| in. If. 2f in. 
 
 2. ^ The Cow and the Ass.' 
 
 A reverfed copy of an Etching of De Loutherbourg. 
 
 I ft St. Before ' C. M. d^apres de Loutherbourg.^' before working 
 on the leg of the cow, and before the copper had been reduced 
 in fize, as appears in the fecond ftate, 
 
 2nd St. With foregoing additions and alterations. 
 
 h. 5| in. w. 3 in. 
 
34 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 3. 'A Soldier.' 
 
 Standing full-face, and refting his two hands on a battle-axe. 
 A copy of Salvator Rofa. h. 5^ in. w. 3 J in. 
 
 4. *A Shepherd. 
 
 A Shepherd carrying bundles follows fome goats, which 
 defcend a hill. A fimilar copy after Stephano della Bella. 
 
 w. 41 in. h. 3f in. 
 
 5, Q,& 1. 
 
 * The Sheep and the Flies.* h. 6f in. w. 5^ in. 
 
 'The Three Pigs before a Hovel,' and *The Two 
 Horses.' h. 6^ in. w. 5f in. 
 
 Copies after three etchings of Karel du Jardin. Nos. 38, 8. 
 and 4 in Bartfch's Catalogue.* 
 
 All three are figned ' C. M. d'aprh K. D.j: 
 
 * The Britifli Mufeum clafles amongft its Meryons a plate of a Ewe and Two Lambs. In 
 the body of the plate *K di Jwa' below the number '4,' and ' Paris, imp. DelStre.' w. 4 in. 
 b. 3i in. 
 
MERTON'S PFORKS. 
 
 3S 
 
 8, 9, 10, & 11. 
 
 'The Pavilion of Mademoiselle and a part of the 
 Louvre at Paris.' w. gf in. h. sf in. 
 
 'Entrance of the Faubourg of Saint Marceaux at 
 Paris.' tv. gf in. h. 5f in. 
 
 *A Water-Mill near Saint Denis.' 
 
 'The River Seine and the Angle de Mail at Paris.' 
 
 Tranflations executed with much tafte, after a feries of 
 etchings by Zeeman (Nos. 55, 57, and 61 in Bartfch's Cata- 
 logue), originally publiftied at Amfterdam, about 1650, by Clement 
 Jonghe, under the title of Feues de Paris et fes Environs. 
 
 All four bear the infcription, ^C.M.' or^C. Meryon d'apres 
 Zeeman^ and are the fame fize as the originals. 
 
 The coppers of the two firft were bought of Meryon by the* 
 engraver, Augufte Pequegnot, and are ftill in exiftence. 
 
36 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 12, 13, 14, & 15. 
 
 * The Galliot of Jean de Vyl at Rotterdam.' 
 
 ift St. Before the little houfe on the bank, and before the 
 initials ' C. M: 
 
 2nd St. With the initials, but before the angles of the copper- 
 plate were rounded off. The earlier ftates of this and the reft of 
 the fet were printed on India paper and mounted. 
 
 * From Haarlem to Amsterdam.' 
 
 I ft St. Before the angles of the copper-plate were rounded off". 
 
 * South-sea Fishers." 
 
 I ft St. With the initials ' C MJ at the left corner. 
 
 The magazine ^ U Artijle'' publiflied a new iffue of this plate 
 in i86i, with the name oi ^ Meryon^ completed by a ftrange 
 hand. 
 
 * Calais to Flushing." 
 
 The four preceding plates were copies in reverfe of etchings 
 by Regnier Zeeman (catalogued in Bartfch under Nos, 7, 8, 13, 
 and 14), the fet having for title '• Recuell de plujieurs navires et 
 payfages faits d^apres le naturel.^ w. 4f in. h. 2~ in. 
 
MERTON'S WORKS. 37 
 
 16. Entree du Couvent des Capucins franfais a Athen'.s. 
 
 Trial proof, in pure etching. 
 
 I ft Sc. Dry point work in the fky to the right of the Plate, 
 and before any letters. Some rare proofs of this ftate are printed 
 on large paper. 
 
 2nd St. With the title, * tome i. p. 76,' in the upper left angle, 
 'C. Meryon Sculp' and the printer's addrefs, *Pierron Deldtre, 
 R. Montfaucon^ i.' 
 
 This plate was reduced by Meryon by means of the 'chambre 
 noire.' He availed himfelf alfo of a photograph from an engraving 
 (No. xiii.) in a work entitled ' Les Ruines des plus beaux monumens 
 de la Grece^ par M. le Roy, Architedle, mdcclviii.' Meryon's 
 etching was made for a book of the Count L. de Laborde, ^Jthenes^ 
 aux XV. XVI. et xvii. fiecles^ d'apres des documens inedits. Paris, 
 
 1854.' 
 
 The Capucines bought, in 1669, in the ancient ftreet of 
 Tripodes, this choragic monument of Lyficrates. 
 
 In 1845 ^^'S lovely piece of ancient architecture was ftill 
 built up in a wall j but it has fmce been detached, and now 
 ftands by itfelf. h. 7|. in. w. 4^ in. 
 
38 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 17. 'The Salle des Pas Perdus.' 
 
 In the lower margin are the words :— 
 
 * // faut avoir examine la piece originale dans fes moindres 
 details {conime j^ai ete force de le faire) pour en f avoir toute la 
 beaute. II va fans dire que V architecture y eft traitee de main de 
 maitre. Les fiatues des rois font d'un grand Jiyle^ toutes bizarres 
 qu'elles puiffent paraitre au premier abord. ^uant aux petites 
 figures qui animent la fa lie d'une fa^on f piquantes^ et quon pourrait 
 egalement croire faites avec negligence^ elles font^ je penfe^ des plus 
 remarquables confanguinees^ dune certaine maniere, avec celles de 
 R.einier Zeeman^ le graveur de navires, en ce qui concerne la verite 
 de la mimique^ elles rappellent dans de certaines parties [les petites 
 jambes furtoui) la belle correction de Marc Antoine. II nefi pas 
 jufqu'a Vexprejfion des ?nafqueSy qui^ quoique indiquee avec une naivete 
 prefqu enfantine^ ne foit d'une grande fcience phyfiognomonique. — 
 C. Meryon^fculp. d^apres la piece originale de Ducerceau^ due a I'obli- 
 geance de Monfieur Dejlailleur^ JrchiteCle^ Paris ^ MDCCCLV.' 
 
 I ft St. Before the above infcription, and with the margin of 
 the plate w. ij^ in. h. iif. 
 
 2nd St. With the infcription and the plate reduced to the 
 dimenfions w. i6| in. h. lof. 
 
 3rd St. With ' C. Meryon fculp. d'aprh Ducerceau^ mdccclv., 
 and Deldtre R. Fg. St. facques^ No. 81.' The copper has been 
 cut at the bottom, juft below the marginal line. 
 
MERTON'S WORKS. 39 
 
 18. Chenonceau. C. Meryon fculp. d'apres Ducerceau — 
 Deldtre, rue du faub. St. Jacques^ 8 1 . 
 
 This very intelligent redu6lion of one of the plates in the 
 fecond volume of ' Les plus excellents baftimens de France, par 
 Jacques Androuet du Cerceau, ArchitecSte a Paris,' is to be found 
 in ' I'Inventaire des meubles, bijoux et livres eftans a Chenonceau, 
 fuivi d'une notice fur le Chateau de Chenonceau,' by the Prince 
 Augufte Galitzin, 1856. w. ']\ in. h. \\ in. 
 
 19. Le Pont-Neuf et la Samaritaine au dejfous la lere Arche 
 du Pont-au-Change. C. Meryon fculp. d'apres un 
 dejftn de Nicolle. tire du cabinet de Monfteur Dejlail- 
 leurs, Archite£fe. Imp. A. Deldtre, Rue Fg. ■ St, 
 Jacques, 81. 
 
 Between the houfes which line the quai de la Ferraille (now 
 the quai de la MegifTerie), and the monument of the Samaritaine, 
 is feen the angle of the Gallery d'ApoUon, with the Pavilion of 
 Charles the Ninth. 
 
 I ft St. With a delicate fky. 
 
 2nd St. Before any lettering, the bottom marginal line has 
 been ftrengthened and completed. 
 
 3rd St. With the above infcription, and the publication line. 
 
 w. 8 in. b. 5f in. 
 
40 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 20. Le Pont-au- Change vers 1784. C. Meryon Jculp., 
 MDcccL.j d'apres un dejfin de Nicolle tire du Cabinet 
 de M. Dejlailleur, Archite£le. Imp. A. Deldtre^ fauh. 
 St. Jacques J No. 8 1 . 
 
 To the left above the roofs of the houfes is feen the top of 
 the Tower Saint Jacques de la Boucherie. 
 
 Trial Proof. Before the iky. 
 
 I ft St. Before the rope ftretched acrofs the Seine for the ufe 
 of the ferry-boat. The marks left by the vice v/hen the artift 
 varniflied his plate, have been erafed. 
 
 2nd St. With the rope, but before any lettering. 
 
 3rd St. With the rope, the title, and the publication line. 
 
 w. 9I in. h. 5I in. 
 
 21. Plan du combat de Sinope., d'apres le deJfin d'une qfficier du 
 navire anglais " Retribution." C. Meryon Jculp. 
 A. Deldtre, Imp. Rue de la Bucherie, No. 6. 
 
 This plan, which fliows the refpecSlive pofitions of the Ruffian 
 and Turkifli fleets, was intended to illuftrate a work which was 
 never publifhed. 
 
 Almoft all the impreffions have been coloured in water- 
 colours. They were fold in Paris by Charles Tanera. 
 
 w. loi in. h. yi in. 
 
MERTON'S fFORKS. 41 
 
 22. San Francifco. C. Meryon del. fculp. Paris, 1856. 
 A. Deldtre imp. Rue fi- Poijfonniere, 145. 
 
 The foreground confifts of fields and wafte land. Beyond 
 the city is depicted, but few important buildings are vifible. The 
 harbour is full of fhipping. 
 
 This view of San Francifco in 1855 has become a moft 
 interefting hiftorical document. The commiflion for the plate 
 was given to Meryon by two bankers, Meflrs. Bayerque and 
 Pioche, whofe portraits fill two medallions and whofe initials 
 are placed on efcutcheons. 
 
 The arched frame, fupported by the figure of * Work' feated 
 on mining tools, and * Abundance' reclining on fruits of various 
 kinds, was not placed there for allegorical or ornamental purpofes 
 merely, but principally in order to fill up a large gap which occurred 
 in the five little daguerreotype plates which had been furnifhed to 
 Meryon as a bafis for his defign. Thefe plates having been taken 
 on the fpot, but at different hours of the day, (howed in fome the 
 light coming from the right, in others from the left. This troubled 
 him greatly, as did the whole plate, which, in fa6t, haftened on 
 the courfe of his malady. He wrote to M, Burty : — 
 
 *Comme il arrive neceflairement par fuite de la nature nieme de 
 I'inftrument, ces difFerentes vues ne pouvaient fe raccorder que d'une 
 mani^re tris imparfaite, la confufion et la non-verticalitd des bords rendant 
 la coincidence impoflible. De plus, I'opdrateur, pour obtenir I'cnfemble, 
 avail dte force de faire dccrire un angle tr^s fenfible ^ la lunette, d'oCi 
 refukait une deviation confiddrable des grandes lignes de perfpedive ; fi 
 bien que, dans le centre furtout, il devenait obligatoire de remddier k cet 
 accident capital. Autre fait inhdrent a I'dpreuve daguerriennc, les 
 parties profondes dtaient de plus en plus difFufes a mefure qu'clles f'dloig- 
 naient du point de vue de I'objedlif. Force me fut done, avant de faire 
 mon caique, de redreffer chacun de ces deffins. 
 
 *Se rendre compte,' continued he, *de I'averfion que j'dprouvais ^ 
 mener a fin cetie befogne longuc, ardue, ingrate,* eft chofe facile fi Ton 
 veut fe mettre a un place. II y avait de quoi rebuter Thomme le plus 
 patient du monde. Ce qu'il y avait de dur pardefTus tout, c'dtait 
 I'obligation de fixer attentivement ces objets, tantot reproduits avec une 
 precifion etourdifTante, tantot au contraire diffus, quelquefois meme 
 
 * He was to be paid 1200 francs for the Plate. 
 
42 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 ayant fubi de telles deformations de lignes et de couleurs, qu'il devenait 
 prefque impoffible d'en connaitre la forme. Cell ainfi que je ne parvins 
 a dcmeler une efpece de chapelle, a-peu-prcs, au premier plan, a droite, 
 qu'apres I'avoir cherchee, le daguerreotype devant mes yeux, dans mes 
 moments de repit, pendant une huitaine de jours au moins, II y avaic, 
 au centre furtout, comme un cahos, une fondriere, caufcs par cette de- 
 viation des lignes dont j'ai parle, qui me donnait le vertige. Le nial 
 de coeur me faififlait inftantanement. Je me fentais tombcr a la renverfe. 
 * Le jour ou je verfai fur une planche couverte la traitreffe liqueur, par 
 quelles emotions ne paflai-je pas ! Ce fut prefque pour moi une queftion 
 de vie ou de mort ! Enfin, grace a un Deftin propice, extraordinaire, il 
 faut en convenir, le refultat parut depaffer mon attente, . . . Cependant, 
 un moment, je fus gravement inquiet : la rouille avait rempli les tailles, 
 je ne pouvais plus fuivre I'efFet du mordant ! Un homme du metier que 
 je confultai dut me donner un remede fcabreux que j'eus le bon efprit 
 d'appliquer convenablement, et je fauvai ma planche de ce pas fi difficile. 
 Pendant une bonne partie de I'opcration j'avais travaiile a I'aveuglette. 
 Ne voyant pas ce que fe pafTait fous le mordant, j'avais augmente pro- 
 greffivement la dofe d'acide nitrique jufqu'a une forte proportion. 
 Quand j'enlevai le vernis, je vis avec un contentement extreme que la 
 morfure etait convenablement graduee ; mais les tailles reftaient complete- 
 ment obftruees de rouille. Ce meme homme de I'art a qui je m'etais 
 adrefle d'abord eut I'extr^me bont^ de me le ddgager avec une extreme 
 ncttete. . . . Pour la terminer, je teintai, tant avec I'eau-forte d'abord, 
 qu'enfuite a la pointe feche, toutes les parties que le demandaient, et je 
 fis auffi le ciel. En dernier lieu feulement j'ajoutai les deux portraits 
 qui figurent a droite et a gauche dans le centre du cartouche.' 
 
 ifl: St, Before any lettering, and before a confiderable amount 
 of frefti working throughout. 
 
 2nd St. In the Rev. J. J. Heywood's colle6lion, with the 
 title and the initials of the bankers, but with one of their heads 
 erafed, as if fault having been found with it, it was to be redrawn. 
 
 3rd St. With the title and publication line. 
 
 The fteel on which this magnificent, yet extraordinary defign 
 was drawn is ftill in exiftence. w. 39I in. h. 9J in. 
 
MERTON'S WORKS. 43 
 
 23. * View of the Ruins of the Chateau of 
 
 PlERREFONDS.' 
 
 This facfimile of a fketch from nature of Monfieur E. Viollet 
 le Due, was etched by Meryon during his firft confinement in the 
 afylum at Charenton. 
 
 ift-St. Before much fubfequent working on the plate in dry 
 point. 
 
 2nd St. With thefe additions. w. 8^ in. h. 5^ in. 
 
 24. Rue Pirouette-aux-Halles. 
 
 This plate, which is remarkable even amongft Meryon's work, 
 for the elegance of the drawing with the needle, and the delicacy 
 of its biting, was executed after a drawing by an artift unknown 
 to fame, Monfieur Laurence. Meryon being at that time a prey 
 to melancholy, dreaded to work in the ftreets. He here gave the 
 exadt outlines and effedl of light and ftiade, but drew from imagin- 
 ation the people who throng the ftreets of this popular and populous 
 quarter. * 
 
 He ufed the burin in this plate to a confiderable degree. 
 
 Trial Proof Before the fky ; in pure etching. 
 
 ift St. With the fky, and the efFeft of light, but before any 
 lettering. 
 
 2nd St., of which 20 impreflions were ftruck ofF. With 
 ' Rue Pirouette, i860,' the initials '•C. M. et Z,.' on a chimney, and 
 the following fragments of an infcription on a wall, ^ Jamet Md. 
 Maree : Bains de mer, Dieppe ; a Jeanne D^ Arc outils lab.,' etc. 
 
 3rd St. With the words, '■Laurence del — Meryon fculp. — 
 Deldtre imp. r. St. J. 265 ; ' and the infcription, ' Aux noces de 
 
44 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 Cana, Martingal rejiaur fefiins manages repas. Au Diahle Maure^ 
 For tier Md. de Vins.' 
 
 4th St. With thefe difFerences in the infcriptions : ^Jux noces 
 de Gamache^ Sacoche^ trait. Coufin^ Md. de Vins, etc' 
 
 There are intermediate trial proofs, between thefe marked 
 ftates, with very flight difFerences apparent in their work. 
 
 The copper is in exiftence. h. 5 in. w. 4^ in. 
 
 25. 'Presentation to King Louis XI. of the Work 
 
 V^LERE Maxime, Printed at Paris about 1475.' 
 
 Meryon executed with loving care this facfimile of a drawing 
 in miniature, which belonged to M. Niel, Librarian to the 
 Miniftry of the Interior. 
 
 The fcene depi6led is a curious one : the king feated in a 
 chair of ftate, furmounted by a canopy ornamented with fleurs- 
 de-lys, accepts with hauteur the volume which is refpedtfully 
 prefented to him by a black-robed and bareheaded fubjeil:. The 
 courtiers intereft themfelves in various degrees in the ceremony. 
 The view from the windows of the room is over a well-wooJed 
 landfcape. 
 
 Various trial proofs before the dry point work. 
 
 I ft St. ^^ecognifable by an accidental fcratch of the burin 
 over the drefles of the courtiers on the left. 
 
 2nd St. The plate finiflied, but before the monogram ' C. M.' 
 to the right of a page, which conftitutes the mark of a 4th ftate. 
 
 The plate is in exiftence. w. 'j- in. h. 6j in. 
 
MERTON'S PFORKS. 45 
 
 26. Chevet de S^- Mar tin -fur- Rene lie, ^gUJe paroijjiale fup- 
 -primee en lygi 
 
 This etching is a facfimile of a drawing of ' Polydes Langlois,* 
 the Norman architedl, antiquary, and critic. 
 
 Trial proof in pure etching. 
 
 I ft St. With the words, '-Polydes Langlois^ iSjy — C. M.y 
 21 OSiobre, i860 Imp. — Delatre imp. des Feuillantines, ^.' 
 
 2nd St. With the addition at the top of the plate, * Memoires 
 de la Societe des Jntiquaires de Normandie^ t. xxiv.' 
 
 h. 7| in. w. 4| in. 
 
D 
 
 IVISION 5V>. //. 
 
 Oietos of Pari0. 
 
 27. Pajferelle du Font au Change apres I'incendie de 1621 
 (d'apres un dejjin du temps — tire de la colle^iion de 
 Mr- Bonnardot) — Gazette des Beaux Arts. Imp. 
 Deldtrey r. des Feuillantines, ^, Paris, 
 
 I ft St. Before the initials * C. M.' and before a boy ftretched 
 at full length on the ground to the left. 
 
 2nd St. Same as ift ftate, except that the top marginal line 
 is lightly drawn in. 
 
 3rd St. Same as 2nd, but with the addition of a ftump 
 appearing to the left of a tree on the right. 
 
 4th St. Before the title, with ' C. M.' at the bottom of the 
 tree. On fome proofs the ftamp of the coliedlion Lagoy (an 
 * L ' in a triangle), which was fubfequently effaced by the bur- 
 nifher, appears to the right of the initials * C. M.' 
 
 5th St. With the title. Struck off for the number of the 
 Gazette des Beaux Arts which appeared on the ift Nov. i860. 
 Printed on ordinary India paper and mounted. The plate illuf- 
 trated an interefting article of M. Jules Coufm, now Librarian to 
 the City of Paris. Some trial proofs have the title without the 
 addrefs of the printer. 
 
 6th St. The title, ^Pajferelle du Pont au Change^ &c* which 
 had been in italics, has reappeared in fmall capitals. 
 
 The copper is in exiftence. w. 9 in, h. 4I in. 
 
48 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 28. Par tie de la Cite de Paris, vers la fin du XV IF- Siecky 
 fur la rive gauche de la Seine, entre le Pont N^- Dame et le 
 Pont au Change. N.B. Suivant toute probabilite la facade 
 meridionale des prefentes maifons, hahitees par des Tanneurs, 
 formait un cote de la rue de la Pelleterie. Chofe ajfez fmguliere, 
 par des caufes fur lefquelles peut fexercer la fagacite des 
 curieux, des parties importantes du fujet, a favoir les Tours 
 Notre Dame, le coin de la pompe N- D^- les cheminees des 
 pignons du Pont, manquent dans P original, du mains le feul 
 emplacement eji indique ; tandis que les details [que la gravure 
 a d' ailleurs foigneufement reproduits) y font fait s avec minutis. 
 Enfin, pour rendre la vie a ces lieux le graveur a cru pouvoir 
 ajouter differents groupes de figures. {Le deffin fait partie de 
 la colleSfion de M^- Bonnardot.") Chez Rochoux, quai de 
 VHorloge, ig. — Delatre imp. r. de Feuillantines 2, Paris. 
 
 The ftates of this plate would be no lefs than nine if one 
 accepted as fuch mere alterations in the foregoing legend as, for 
 inftance, ' Rocheux ' for ' Rochoux.' But it is not neceflary to 
 defcend to fuch puerilities, as every one will agree that differences 
 of ftate fhould be real differences in the defign of the work. Of 
 fuch there are three, which are well determined and marked out. 
 
 iff trial proof. Before the fky and before the towers of 
 Notre Dame. 
 
 2nd trial proof. The fky ftill unfinifhed on the left ; the 
 towers of Notre Dame inferted ; fmoke iffues from two large 
 chimneys on the right. 
 
 I ft St. The words, '■Au Cana C. Meryon rejlaura, Paris, an 
 de gra, mdccclxi.' are to be found on the right on a large placard 
 which is affixed to the gable ends. 
 
 2nd St. The words ^Au Cana ' are effaced. Impreffions of 
 this ftate, which is called the * before letters ' ftate, were ftruck 
 off to the extent of 20. 
 
 3rd St. The words which were on the placard in the 2nd 
 
 ftate are effaced, and in their ftead thefe, ' Le fuhre rejia, Poiffons 
 
 fr. au Repu.' One hundred impreffions of this ftate, which has 
 
 for its title the long legend which we have tranfcribed, having 
 
 been ftruck off the plate was deftroyed. 
 
 This etching afforded to Meryon's friends one of the moft 
 convincing proofs of his unfortunate malady. In fpite of their 
 
MERrOirS JVORKS. 49 
 
 counfels, and of the advice of Mons, Bonnardot, who wiftied him 
 to keep to the original defign, Meryon pretended that the towers 
 of Notre Dame, and the chimneys of the houfes, had been effaced 
 in the original drawing by evil-difpofed perfons, and he infifted on 
 placing them in his etching ; thus tranfgrefling hiftorical accuracy 
 with a perfiftency which could leave no doubt in any one's mind 
 as to his mental condition. iv. I2# in. h. 6 in. 
 
 29. Le Grand Chdtelet a PariSj d'apres un dejftn execute en 
 lySo ; faijant partie de la colleSfion de M. Berard. 
 — C. M.Jculp. 1 86 1 — Pierron imp. rue Montfaucon /, 
 chez RochouXj quai de VHorloge ig. 
 
 Meryon executed this etching in rather too off-hand a manner, 
 and without much attempt at refemblance, from an Indian ink 
 fketch attributed to NicoUe. 
 
 I ft St. Before the working in the fky and on the ftaircafe in 
 the centre. 
 
 2nd St. Before any lettering. Twenty proofs were taken of 
 this ftate. 
 
 3rd St. With the lettering. The plate was broken up after 
 one hundred impreffions had been ftruck off. w. iif in. h. 9^ in. 
 
50 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 30. Vue de Vancien Louvre du cote de la Seine^ i6^i. 
 Ch. Meryon d'apres Zeeman. 
 
 This plate, which Meryon etched with care but in a heavy 
 manner after a pi6lure in the Louvre, was completed but a fhort 
 time before his fecond and final entrance into the Afylum at 
 Charenton. 
 
 I ft St. Before any lettering. 
 
 2nd St. With above title. 
 
 The copper of this etching is in the Calchographie Nationale 
 at the Louvre. w. io| in. h. 6| in. 
 
 31. Eaux-fortes fur Paris, par C. Meryon, mdccclii. 
 
 The title, printed on the grey cover of Meryon's principal 
 work, Eaux-fortes fur Paris. The etching reprefents a block of 
 limeftone, with fhell-marks and the imprint of mofs deeply im- 
 bedded in it, and was intended to be typical of the foundations 
 of Paris, the original fpecimen having been taken from the 
 quarries of Montmartre. The title is engraved on the furface 
 of the block in fanciful letters. 
 
 There is but one ftate of this. h. 6^ in. w. 4f in. 
 
 The fet of Eaux-fortes fur Paris confift of — 
 
 The Title (31). 
 
 Four Sets of Verses (32, 34, 49, 
 
 and 51). 
 Two Frontispieces (33 and 46). 
 Twelve principal Etchings, 
 viz. : — 
 
 Le Stryge (37). 
 
 Le Petit Pont (38). 
 
 LArchedu P ontNotre Dame{^yf). 
 
 La Galerie de Notre Dame (40). 
 
 Le Tour de V Horloge (42). 
 
 Tourelle^ rue de la Tixeranderie (43 ) . 
 
 Saint Etienne du Mont (44). 
 
 La Pompe Notre Dame (45). 
 
 Le Pont Neuf{^'j). 
 
 Le Pont au Change (48). 
 
 La Morgue (50). [(52). 
 
 L^Abfide de Notre Dame de Paris 
 Two Minor Etchings of the 
 arms of Paris (35 and 36). 
 And two Tailpieces : — 
 
 The Ruedes Mauvais Garfons{^i). 
 
 Le Tombeau de Moliere (53). 
 
 In all 23 Etchings. 
 
MERTON'S PFORKS. 51 
 
 32. J Reinievy dit Zeeman^'^" peintre et eau-fortier. C. Meryon 
 fecit, MDCccLiv. Im^. Rue Neuve-S^--Etienne-dU' 
 Mont, No. 26. 
 
 Verfes, in number forty-two, were etched on a few proofs. 
 They commence — 
 
 ' Peintre des matelots ! 
 Toi dont la main calleufe. 
 En ta verve amoureufe 
 Par de fi fimples traits 
 Sut dire les attraits 
 De la mer et des Jiots, 
 De ce preinier ouvrage. 
 Oil fai grave Parisy 
 La Fille a la Galere 
 ^u a ton injlar je fis 
 En ta Jimple maniere, 
 Accept e au mains Diommage* 
 
 We confine ourfelves to citing thefe two ftanzas. The whole 
 formed a fort of poetical ornament which the public failed to 
 appreciate or underftand. 
 
 There is only one ftate of this. h. 6| in. w. 2f in. 
 
 * It was, as we have before ftated, Zeeman's work, The Pavilion of MademoiJelU (No. 8) 
 which firft gave Meryon the idea of etching a feries of Views of Paris. 
 
52 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 33. ' Old Gateway of the Palais de Justice,' 
 
 Paris. C. MeryonfM. mdcccliv. Imp. rue N^-St.-Etienne- 
 du-Mont^ No- 26. 
 
 The frontifpiece of the work. An imp unfurls a banneret on 
 which can with difficulty be deciphered, ' Eaux-fortes fur Paris 
 par Meryon.' He hovers over the old gate of the Palais de Juftice, 
 on which is engraved, ' Paris, mdcccl-i-iv.' Its maflive 
 towers are vigoroufly drawn, as well as the further roofs of the 
 city ; the whole being encircled by fantaftic rays. 
 
 I ft St. Before the publication line, and printed on the fame 
 plate as the ' Tombeau de MoViere^ the fize being h. b\ in. w. 5^ in. 
 Mr. Haden has a proof in this ftate. 
 
 2nd St. The copper cut, but before any lettering. 
 
 3rd St. With the publication line etched in a circle of 
 which the diameter is 3f in. 
 
ME R TON'S JVORKS. ^3 
 
 34. ^'dme pure rougijfe. 
 
 Meryon had engraved, to accompany the foregoing etching, a 
 fcore of verfes, commencing — 
 
 * ^u^ame pure rougijfe 
 Mais ci pour frontifpiece 
 ye prends noir diablotin 
 Malicieux^ mutin 
 Dominant de fes ailes 
 Les vieilles tours jumelles 
 De la cite Paris.* 
 
 At the bottom the publication line, * C. M. mdcccliv. Meryon 
 imp. Rue Neuve-S^-Etienne-du-Mont^ No. 26.* An alteration, 
 neceflitated by the abfurdity of the heart bluftiing, was afterwards 
 made, and the word gemijje took the place of rougijfe in the firft 
 line. A few proofs were ftruck off and the copper was deftroyed. 
 
 /;. 2| in. w. if in. 
 
 We may here make a remark which will affift amateurs in 
 their fearch for ' firft ftates.' Meryon lit upon feveral quires 
 of verge paper, very thin and green in colour ; on this paper he 
 ftruck off his trial proofs and thofe comprifing his ' firft ftates,* 
 and this paper gave to them a remarkably powerful and original 
 effedt, though they were as a whole heavy through too much 
 loading with ink. At that time the Japanefe paper, which now 
 enables fuch brilliant tirages to be taken, was but little known. 
 The beft proofs of Meryon's works were originally taken off by 
 Augufte Delatre, on a beautiful Dutch verge paper, which was 
 flightly difcoloured by age. In his youth this clever printer 
 produced from the prefs chefs-d'oeuvre of the printer's art, and 
 his name will be infeparably connected with the revival of 
 etching in France and England. 
 
54 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 35. ' Arms Symbolical of the City of Paris.' 
 
 C, Meryon p- mdcccliv. Imp. Rue N^- S^- Etienne du Mont^ 26. 
 
 The field of the fliield is ftrewn with lilies in three bands. 
 A galley in full fail floats on a calm fea. She fhapes her courfe 
 to the right, which is contrary to the rules of heraldry. She was 
 copied from a galley, carved in a ftone bas-relief at Bourges, of 
 the date of the middle ages. A mural crown, formed of gate- 
 ways and fquare towers, crenellated and connedled by ramparts, 
 furmounts the ftiield, which is fupported by branches of olive 
 and oak. 
 
 Trial proof before any letters and before the copper was cut, 
 the fize being, h. 6| in. w. 5^ in. 
 
 I ft St. With the publication line. h. ^\ in. w. \\ in. 
 
 36. Flu5luat nee mergitur. C. M. mdcccli-iv. 
 
 A galley, fymbolical of the city of Paris, prelTes forward with 
 fwelling fail and pulfating oars. The crown which furmounts 
 the efcutcheon is compofed of cannon, niouths downwards, 
 connedled by a folid wall, and fupported by a band of cannon- 
 balls in imitation of pearls. Meryon never obtained the requifite 
 authority from the Minifter of the Interior to publifh this mag- 
 nificent etching, which feemed to hint at the terrorifm of the 
 E'Tipire, and fo there exift but few impreffions. 
 
 The original pen-and-ink drawing is in Mr. Haden's colleftion. 
 A woodcut from this etching appeared in the Gazette des Beaux 
 Arts of 1864, and it was fubfequently printed on the cover of the 
 * Paris Guide, par les principaux ecrivains et artijies de la France^ 
 iSdy.^ It differs from the etching and original drawing in that 
 the oars are uplifted inftead of being played. 
 
 There is but one ftate. h. 6f in. w. 6| in. 
 
MERTON'S PFORKS. ^S 
 
 37. Le Stryge. C. M. No. /, D eld ire imp. rue Saint Jacques, 
 265. 
 
 This plate reprefents one of the carved figures which adorn 
 the angles of the towers of Notre Dame. The Stryge, the upper 
 half of his body only feen, refts his head in his hands and con- 
 templates the city which unfolds itfelf beneath him. 
 
 Trial proof. Before the figure of the Stryge and the tower 
 of St. Jacques. 
 
 ift St. The plate finifhed, and with the initials *C M* on 
 a chimney near the bottom of the etching. 
 
 2nd St. Publication line inferted thus : on one fide, 
 *C Meryon del. et fculp.^ and the date ' mdcccliii.' reverfed ; 
 on the other fide, ^A Delatre imp. rue de la Bucherie., 6.* 
 Beneath this two lines of verfe in the ftyle of the poet Pierre 
 Gringoire, written in Gothic characters faithfully copied from a 
 MS. of the 15th century. 
 
 * Infatiable vampire, reternelle luxure. 
 Sur la grande cite convoite fa p&ture* 
 
 Near thefe the initials ' C. M^ 
 
 3rd St. The two lines of verfe have been effaced. 
 
 4th St. Laft tirage made by Meryon after his releafe from 
 Charenton. He retouched this and all the plates of the fet with 
 the burin (which made them darker than in the earlier ftates), took 
 off^ fome 30 impreflions, and deftroyed them. With the title,* 
 the above publication line, and alfo ^A Delatre imprimeur rue 
 Saint Jacques, 26^* h. 6| in. w. 5| in. 
 
 The Britlfh Muleum impreflion of this ftate has oaly the title and 00 other lettering. 
 
S6 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 38. Le Petit Pont. 
 
 This view is taken from the towing-path at the foot of the 
 Quai de la Tournelle. The towers of Notre Dame, which rear 
 themfelves in the upper part of the compofition, are much too 
 high, regard being had to their real dimenfions and the laws of 
 perfpe6live. We fliould be called upon in feveral inftances to 
 draw attention to errors of this nature were they not entirely 
 voluntary ones, and on the whole permiflible. Meryon never 
 pretended that his plates had the cold exa6titude of a photograph. 
 When he took his firft fketch from below — from the water's 
 edge, for inftance — it is evident he placed himfelf in a pofition 
 which, if reproduced, would have been unrecognifable to the 
 majority of fpeclators. He mounts, therefore, to the bank, and 
 with a facility almoft unequalled tacks on to his firft idea the 
 view which ufually ftruck the pafler-by from the parapet. By 
 thefe two operations he compofed a pi6lure which at the fame 
 time is a real view. Mr. Haden poiTefTes fome very careful 
 drawings of the Towers of Notre Dame : they are infcribed in 
 Meryon's writing, '■Dejfins ayant fervi pour le Petit Pont. C. M. 
 1850: 
 
 I ft St. Before the marginal line at the bottom and the initials 
 ' C. M^ in the upper right corner. 
 
 2nd St. Finiflied, with the initials, but before any lettering, 
 and before the bottom marginal line. Some dry point fcratching 
 on the left bottom margin. 
 
 3rd St. The fame, but with the dry point marks removed. 
 4th St. With the title and thefe words, ' Publie par F Jrtijie ' 
 written with the needle. The fky is lowered in tone by diagonal 
 downward ftrokes from right to left. 
 
 5th and laft St. With the number * ^,' the title, '■ Le Petit 
 Pont., 18^0.^ reinfcribed in little capitals, and ' Delatre imp. Rue 
 S^- yacques, 26^.' Meryon in this ftate ' reduced what to him 
 feemed the too violent oppofition of the black and white by dry 
 point working.' * h. g^ in. w. 7^ in. 
 
 * The remarks here and elfewhere placed within inverted commas were fiirniflied by 
 Meryon himfelf to Mr. Burty, when he was compiling the firft catalogue of his work. 
 
MERTON'S WORKS. si 
 
 39. V Arche du pont Notre-Bame, 18^0. 
 
 Underneath the arch of the Bridge are feen the piles which 
 uphold the *- pompe a feu ;'' further, the Pont au Change and the 
 towers of the Palace de Juftice. This was the firft of the 
 feries executed by Meryon. He availed himfelf of the chambre 
 claire^ but he was obliged to entirely remodel the defign which 
 this inftrument had furniflied him with. 
 
 Trial proof, in pure etching. Thefe proofs are very rare : 
 Meryon, finding that they did not exprefs his feelings, deftroyed 
 them in almoft every inftance, whenever he could lay hands upon 
 them. 
 
 ift St. With crofs-hatching on the under-fide of the arch. 
 
 2nd St. With, to the left, ' C. Meryon^ del. fculp. imp. rue 
 2sfe. S*' Etienne du Mont 26' — to the light, * Paris, iS^j.^ 
 
 3rd and laft St. With the title, '■No.j,' in left bottom corner, 
 and the words — which appear in all his lart printings — '•A. Deldtre 
 imp. R. S^-facques 26^.' In the upper angle the initials *C. M.* 
 * Delicate corrections with the burin. The dry point work in the 
 fky^ which diflinguifhes the earlier ftates. has almoft difappeared.' 
 
 w. 7f in. h. 6 in. 
 
58 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 40. La Galerie de Notre-Dame. 
 
 Jackdaws are building in the Gallery. Through the fine 
 Gothic colonnade, as Victor Hugo, in his Notre-Dame de Par'is^ 
 fays, 'the eye dwells on a maze of roofs, chimneys, ftreets, 
 bridges, fquares, fpaces, and towers ; and fpecially towards the 
 Weft on the Palais de Juftice, fettled down on the borders of the 
 river midft its group of towers.' 
 
 Trial proof in Mr. Haden's colle6lion (with ftatement on its 
 face that it was printed by Meryon) before the infertion of the 
 fliaded fky above the cumuli, and with the upper of the two 
 jackdaws who fly between the two colonnades almoft white. 
 The whole in pure etching. 
 
 I ft St. The jackdaw is now black. Additional bitings have 
 already lowered the wonderful aerial effe6t of the trial proof 
 
 2nd St. Finiftied and with * C. Meryon^ del. Jculp. iS^t,. 
 Imp. rue N^- S^--Etienne-du-Mont^ 26.' 
 
 3rd St. With the addrefs which appeared in the laft ftate 
 erafed, and in its place the monogram ' C. Mj' in the upper left 
 corner j five Jackdaws have been added between the two laft 
 columns to the right, and this title, ^la Galerie N*^*D.' 
 
 4th and laft St. With the number '^,' the addtefs, '■J. Delatre, 
 R. S^- Jacques^ 26 J.' ' Le clocheton de la tourelle qui occupe la 
 partie centrale du fond a ete refait.' 
 
 We may ftate here that in all thefe laft, numbered, ' tirages ' 
 retouches have been made with the burin. h. 11 in. w. 6| in. 
 
MERTON'S JVORKS. 59 
 
 41. ' The Rue des Mauvais-Gar^ons.* 
 
 Houfes built in many courfes, and pierced by irregular 
 openings, which are guarded by thick iron bars : one of the 
 houfes, which is protected againft vehicles by enormous ftone 
 ftruts, bears in large chara6lers above the door the number ' 12.* 
 Two women pafs along, one of whom carries a bundle on her 
 arm. The compofition is Angularly powerful. It quietly fhows 
 that antithefis fo often to be met with in the old quarters of 
 great towns, the fun enlivening at certain times the foetid runnel, 
 and gilding the walls of the unfavoury hovel. This view formed 
 the tail-piece of the firft part of the Eauxfortes fur Paris. 
 
 I ft St. Before the verfes, with the infcription '-Meryon imp. 
 rue Neuve-Saint-Etienne-du-Mont^ 26^ and with an 'J/.' in dry 
 point on the left hand ftone ftrut. 
 
 2nd St. With thefe verfes : — 
 
 ' ^uel mortel habitait 
 En ce gite fi fombre ? 
 ^ui done la fe cachait 
 Dans la nuit et dans fombre ? 
 
 * Etait-ce la vertu 
 P auvre^ filencieufe ? 
 Le Crime diras-tu 
 On quelqu'dme haineufe. 
 
 ' jih ! ma foi^ je P ignore. 
 Si tu veux le f avoir ^ 
 Curieux^ vas y voir. 
 II en ejl temps encore.^ 
 
 Paris, Mars . . . tiv. 
 
 h. 4| in. w. 3| in. 
 
6o CATALOGUE OF 
 
 42. La Tour de VHorloge. 
 
 The Pont au Change, under an arch of which a loaded barge 
 paffes, crofies the compofition : to the left the Palais de Juftice, 
 whofe buildings flretch along the Ouai des Orfevres. 
 
 Trial proof in pure etching. 
 
 I ft St. Before the marginal line at the bottom and before 
 the dry point work in the fky. 
 
 2nd St. The plate finilhed, but before the initials ' C. M.' in 
 the right top corner. 
 
 3rd St. With the initials '• C. M.' Mr. Haden has an im- 
 preflion which would appear to come between this and the 
 foregoing ftate, it having no marginal line. 
 
 4th St. With the title and '■ pub lie par V Artijie^^ and the 
 addrefs of the printer, '///?/». Aug. Delatre, R. S. Jacque^ lyi.' 
 
 5th and laft St. With the monogram, the number '5,' and the 
 fame title re-engraved in little capitals ; the triangular roof of the 
 Tour de I'Horloge, white in the preceding ftates, is fhaded in this. 
 
 'The middle diftance has been worked up. The old building, which 
 is in courfe of demolition, affords a paffage through its windows to two 
 gleams of light, which, coming from behind, let daylight into the centre 
 of the compofition, which in the earlier Itates was too uniformly black 
 and wanting in intereft. In various parts, particularly at the top of the 
 fcaffolding, fmall figures have been added. On the parapet of the 
 bridge many modifications have been made. Laftly, in the right diftance, 
 one of the femicircular fliops of the Pont Neuf, which was in the way, 
 has been removed fo as to allow the clumps of trees on the river bank 
 to be feen to greater advantage.' 
 
 An impreffion of this ftate in the Britifh Mufeum bears the 
 words, ' Bon a titer quinze epreuves, C. M.' h. 10^ in. w. 7g in« 
 
MERTON'S WORKS. 6i 
 
 43. 'Tourelle^ rue de la Tixeranderie^ demolie en i8^i. C. M. 
 
 Two perfons leaning back againft an iron railing, point to the 
 tower built at the angle of the Rue du Coq. A Soldier pafTes oii 
 horfeback. 
 
 ift St. Before the letters 'C. M.^ in the upper right corner. 
 
 2nd St. Before the title, and with the initials ' C. MJ 
 
 3rd and laft St. With number ' (5,' the title, and '■J. Delatre 
 
 imp. R. S^- yacques, 26j.' 'The upper portion of the vine, which 
 
 is in the fhade, has been worked up.' h. g| in. w. 5j in. 
 
 44. Saint-Etienne-du-Mont. 
 
 The central portion of the portico of the Church is feen be- 
 tween the buildings (already pulled down) of the ancient College 
 de Montaigu and the angle of the Pantheon. 
 
 ift Trial Proof in pure etching, the plate is about li^ inches 
 high by 6^ wide. In the Rev. J. J. Heywood's Colledlion. 
 
 2nd Trial Proof The plate reduced in fize. 
 
 ift St. The plate has been rebitten and touched up with the 
 burin throughout, the initials *C. M.^ inferted in the right top 
 corner. 
 
 2nd St. The workman, who on the bottom ftage of the 
 fcafFolding reaches out to receive a pole, has his arms erafed. 
 
 3rd St. In the top corner of the angle of the Pantheon the 
 words, ' St. Ene.-du'Mont. — Bibliotheque Sainte-Genevleve.' 
 
 4th and laft St. With the number '7,' The work on the 
 facade of the Church is finiftied by harmonifing the tones. At 
 the top of the picture to the right, the title : ' Saint- E'^^-du-Mont 
 et Pancien college de Montaigu^^ this laft title being the one to be 
 
62 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 applied to the edifice which forms the block on the left, and on 
 which is written befide other notices, ^ A. Delatre^ imprimeur 
 taille-douce^ eau-forte. R. S. yacque^ 26J.' The workman, before 
 mentioned, has his arms wider apart, and his body fronting the 
 fpe6tator. 
 
 N.B. — There is an eafily diftinguifhable copy of this plate in 
 circulation. - h. gf in. w. 5| in. 
 
 45. La Pompe Nolre-Dame. 18^2 * 
 
 The Pompe Notre-Dame and its pi6turefque piles occupy 
 the centre of the compofition. On the right one fees the high 
 towers of Notre Dame beyond the houfes on the quay. 
 
 Trial Proof. The fifhing-net left quite white. 
 
 I ft St. in pure etching. At the bottom, written in reverfed 
 lettering, '■C. Meryon^ft. R. N^--Si-Ettenne-du-Mont,26. — 1852^ 
 
 2nd St. Touched up with the burin throughout, and the 
 infcription of the firft ftate re-written the proper way : ' C Meryon 
 ft. Imp. R. N«- St- Etienne du Mont, 26. — 18^2.'' 
 
 3rd St., with thefe words in addition : * Publie par V Art'ijie. 
 La Pompe Notre-Dame. Imp^- A. Deldtre^ R. St.-yacques^ iy6.^ 
 
 4th St. The title in capitals, the words ' Publie par Vart'ijie^ 
 erafed, the Number '<?. C. Meryon., D. S.^' in the upper right 
 corner. The roofs, which are white in the preceding ftates, 
 are here fhaded with dry point. 
 
 5th St. Same as preceding, but the word Meryon erafed fave 
 the initial letter. w. 10 in, h. 6f in. 
 
 The date ufually refers to the time when the firft flcetch from nature was taken. 
 
MERTON'S PFORKS. 63 
 
 46. ' THE LITTLE PUMP.' Aferyon. C. M. f. Imp. R. N^ 
 
 St.-Etienne-du-AIont, 26. 
 
 Meryon compofed this elegant yet fpirited fantafy as a frontif- 
 piece to the fecond part of the Paris Views. At the top of the 
 compofition two dolphins fpout water through their noftrils ; 
 below, two pipes ifluing on either fide of the body of the pump, 
 rife in graceful curves, fuftain overflowing cups, interlace and 
 form circles in which are the letters 'P. A^. Z).' (Pompe Notre 
 Dame), and terminate in the form of the head of a fwan. The 
 whole forms an oval framework for the following whimfica. 
 verfes : — 
 
 * Mais pour amoirir 
 Cet arret inique 
 Par un tour bachique 
 ^ue ne pompes-tu 
 En impromptu. 
 
 *■ Cen ejifait 
 Oforfait ! 
 Pauvre pompe 
 Sans pompe 
 llfaut mourir f 
 
 ' yfu lieu deau claire 
 ^u'on naime guere 
 
 — Du vin 
 
 — Bitnfin? — MDCCCLiv.* 
 
 ift St. Before the publication line and various workings. 
 There alfo exift trial proofs which fhow that the margin of the 
 copper had not been cleaned. 
 
 2nd St. With infcription, and added working on the plate : 
 the pump ftiaded, rays of light iflue from the letters P. N. D ., 
 and water flows from the cups, h. no in. w. 80 in. 
 
64 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 47. Le Pont-Neuf. 
 
 The fpetfiator is fuppofed to be (landing at the water's edge. 
 
 Trial proof, in pure etching. 
 
 I ft St. Before any letters, and before the marginal line at 
 the bottom. 
 
 2nd St. With the name and addrefs of the Printer written in 
 an inverfe dire6lion. The fky has been effaced, and the houfes 
 in the diftance are indicated only in pencil. 
 
 3rd St. Worked upon with the burin throughout. With 
 publication line, 'C. Meryon del.fculp, i8jj — Imp. A. Deldtre^ rue 
 de la Bucherie^ No. d.' 
 
 4th St. Same as laft ftate, but with eight verfes, of which 
 the firft alone need be here reproduced. 
 
 ' Ci-git du v'leux Pont Neuf 
 Uexaile refemblance. 
 Tout radoube de neuf., 
 Par recente ordonnance. . . .' 
 
 5th St. A trial proof, probably unique. The verfes have 
 been rubbed off, and have not yet been replaced by the title, 
 which appears in the following ftate. 
 
 6th St. The chimney of the Mint, as well as the verfes, have 
 difappeared. The latter are replaced by the fimple title, ^Le Pont- 
 Neuf written with the needle. 
 
 7th and laft St. With the number 'p.,' the initials *C M.,' the 
 title re-written in fmall capitals. The houfes, which are feen 
 above the femicircular fhops, have been entirely redrawn, and 
 are much fmaller. 7j m.fquare. 
 
MERTON'S JVORKS. 65 
 
 48. Le Pont au Change. 
 
 The bridge, above which is {^^w the roof of the Pompe-a- 
 feu, occupies the middle diftance ; to the right is the Palais de 
 Juftice, beyond the trees on the Quai aux Fleurs. 
 
 Trial proof, before the fky, and the bottom and under part of 
 the arches. Mr. Heywood has a trial proof with the Palais de 
 Juftice and the bridge only. 
 
 I ft St. Before the rebiting in the background, and removal 
 of traces of burr. 
 
 2nd St. Finifhed in pure etching. A balloon, bearing on its 
 fide the word Speranza^ rifes in the air amid the acclamations of 
 the crowd on the bridge, 
 
 3rd St. Worked up throughout with the point, with the 
 publication line, * C. Meryon^ del. fculp. MOCCCLliil. Imp. R. 
 Neuve-S^-Etienne-du-Mont^ 26.* 
 
 4th St. With a number of fmall balloons, borne along by the 
 wind. The monogram ' C. M^ on the left upper corner, and the 
 title below the plate, ' Le Pont au Change.* 
 
 5th St. One day Meryon gave Mi. Burty a proof of this ftate 
 before he had put in the birds. In the empty fpace in the fky he 
 had drawn, with a very finely-pointed pencil, what his fancy, like 
 Hamlet's, faw there : the clouds were formed of the flefliy forms 
 of women recumbent and afleep ; over one of them a ferpent 
 hung his huge fnake-like coils, alfo combining to form the clouds. 
 Above was depicted one of the Ifles of Polynefia, covered 
 with lofty palm-trees. Towards this a chariot, as it might be 
 that of the fun, afcended. A man alfo threw himfelf into 
 fpace ; this Meryon gravely faid was ' le fort, qui attend le 
 mortel, trop ambitieux.' Nothing could excel the originality 
 and brightnefs of thefe luminous fpots in the darkened brain of 
 this poet — acquired, however, only at rare intervals, and rarely 
 taking a form which admitted of their being compofed into a 
 harmonious whole. 
 
 At the fale of the Niel CoUeftion, a proof of this ftate, 
 probably a unique trial proof, with the clouds drawn in pencil, 
 but without the foregoing mythological figures, was fold for 102 
 francs to Holloway and Sons of London. 
 
66 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 6th St. All the fky has been taken out. It is now evening, 
 and the crefcent of the new moon has been inferted. A flight 
 of albatrofles foar above a flock of wild duck, who fcatter them- 
 felves in every dire6lion. Meryon was infected, even thus early, 
 with an idea that, at the clofe of day, eagles and other birds of 
 prey were let loofe from the Tuileries, whofe threatening flight 
 carried trouble into the peaceful minds of the citizens, and re- 
 called to them the triumph of the coup d'etat of 185 1. With 
 the title and monogram in the upper left corner. 
 
 yth St. With the fky worked up, but before the final title. 
 
 8th St. With the number ' 10 ' — the monogram ' C, M.' A 
 cloud of air balloons bearing the titles, Fafco de Gama^ T Ajmodee^ 
 le Protee^ le Saint Elme^ float in every direction. 
 
 This etching is one among many in Meryon's works where 
 the air is as full of vitality as the earth, and where both in accord 
 combine a gracefulnefs very rarely encountered in works of this 
 clafs. w. 13, h. 6| in. 
 
MERTOiYS WORKS. 67 
 
 49. L'EJperance. 
 
 Meryon compofed a fet of verfes which embody his feelings 
 with refpe6t to the foregoing plate. He etched them and ftruck 
 off a few proofs. They bear as title U Efperance^ and are as 
 follows : — 
 
 ' Leger aerojiat^ divine Efperance^ 
 Comme le frele efquif que le houle balance 
 Au fouffle nonchalant des paiftbles auta s 
 Pars^ et dans les vapeurs que pronienent les vents^ 
 Decouvre-toi parfois a nos regards avides 
 Sur le fond bleu du ciel^ dans les regions placides^ 
 Ow dun riche foleil les rayons fecondants 
 Tracent en lignes d'or tous les reves brillants 
 D'un douteux avenir . . . 
 Afais, trijie reveur, pourquoi dans les nuages 
 Te promener ainft ? . . . 
 Reviens, reviens^ a terre . . . 
 Grains de tenter du Sort le caprice bizarre . . . 
 Puifquun Dejlin nouveau t'a mis la pointe en main^ 
 1^ a fait pajfer graveur de drop fiele mar in., 
 Vas ! que fur Fendroit noir qui recourre ton cuivre 
 Ta main laijje apres toi le remous qui doit fuivre 
 Tout efquif pajfager fur Porageufe mer 
 ^u'on appelle le Vie^ ocean dur^ amer^ 
 Oii trop fouvent^ he las I fallacieux mirage^ 
 Uefpoir qui nous leurrait va mourir au rivage. 
 
 C. M.^ Mars MDCCCLIV. 
 
 Meryon made a few unimportant variations in the foregoing, 
 which might be faid to conftitute a fecond ftate did they occur 
 in a picture, and not in what only takes the place of a printed 
 document. h. 2^ in. w. 5 in. 
 
68 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 50. La Morgue, 1850. 
 
 This etching is one of Meryon's moft powerful works — one 
 in which is moft eminently vifible his power of inftilling poetry 
 and piiturefquenefs into the moft uninterefting fcene. It need 
 hardly here be mentioned that the Morgue is the building to 
 which are taken all the corpfes found in the highways, in the 
 river, and in untenanted houfes. The old building had nothing 
 remarkable in itfelf ; but Meryon has imparted to it an imperifh- 
 able charadler, by his rigid drawing of the principal lines, his 
 potent contrafts of light and fhade, and by the addition of a 
 drama of the moft realiftic charadler. How full of myftery are 
 the three figures, — the corpfe juft dragged from the river, the 
 woman overcome with defpair, the fobbing child ! From a 
 technical point of view, too, this plate is a chef d'ceuvre, — the 
 copper has been attacked by the needle with a furenefs of hand, 
 and the plate has been bitten with a freedom and certainty of 
 fuccefs which is moft remarkable. Everything throughout the 
 work is powerful and expreffive, and leaves nothing to be defired. 
 
 ift trial proof, in pure etching. The Sergent-de-ville, who 
 points to the building — the group of lookers-on — the corpfe 
 which is being carried along — the fmoke which ifliies from the 
 chimneys — are indicated but not modelled. 
 
 2nd trial proof. Before any lettering.. Before the marginal 
 line is finiflied at the top left corner, and with a white fpot left 
 behind the man who ftands on the parapet. 
 
 ift St. Finiftied before any lettering. 
 
 2nd St. To the left, ' C. Meryon del. fculp. mdcccliv.' To 
 the right, ' Imp. Rue Neuve-St.-Etienne-du-Mont.^ No. 26.* 
 
 3rd St. The number 77, the monogram 'C. M.\ corre£lions 
 made in the drawing of the corpfe. Sign-boards pofted up on 
 the buildings, '•Hotel des Trois-Balances. Sabra, dentijie du 
 peuple.' * Mots dans la confonnance ou la fecrete fignification,* 
 wrote Meryon, 'femble s'harmonifer avec ces lieux d'un caractere 
 plein d'aufterite.' 
 
 4th St. Before deftroying this plate, Meryon added yet this 
 infcription to the houfe loweft down in the picture, ' Imagerie, 
 religieufe, exportation.' h. <)\ in. w. 8| in. 
 
MERTON'S WORKS. 
 
 69 
 
 51. DHotellerie de la Mort. 
 
 Meryon engraved on two fmall plates, from which he printed 
 a few proofs in two colours, the following ftanzas, which are 
 imbued with a profound melancholy and a confiderable amount of 
 eloquence. They refer to the foregoing plate of the Morgue. 
 
 * Venez^ voyex^ pajfants ! 
 A fes pauvres enfants 
 En mere charitable^ 
 La Ville de Paris 
 Donne en tons temps gratis^ 
 Et le lit et la table. 
 
 Regarded fans palir 
 Ces faces impaffibles^ 
 Souriantes, terribles, 
 Enigmes d^avenir .... 
 
 Ici la Mort couvie 
 Tous ceux que, par deflin, 
 Couchent fur les chemins 
 Amour^ Mipre^ Envie. 
 
 Pajfants^ paffants^ priez 
 Pour tous les'trepaffes 
 ^u'a la Mort envieufe 
 
 Aniene fans tarir 
 La ville du Plaifir, 
 En ce monde fameufe / 
 
 Mais qui fait ft la Mort^ 
 Sous f on mafque fever e^ 
 Ne nous cache du Sort 
 ^elque riant myjiere? 
 
 ^ui fait ft la Douleur, 
 En foulevant fon voile 
 Du terme du labeur 
 Ne nous montre I'etoile? 
 
 Allez, pauvres humains, 
 Creufez, fouillez la terre 
 De vos pieds, de vos mains I 
 Ilfaut a la Mifere 
 Cnaque jour fa pain-noir* . . 
 
 h. 4| in. w. if in. 
 
70 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 52. VAbfide de Notre Dame de Paris. 
 
 The towers of the Cathedral, feen from the foot of the Pont 
 de la Tournelle, dominate the nave and its buttrefles. To the 
 left the three arches of the Pont aux Choux fpan the river, and 
 beyond are feen the ancient buildings of the Hotel Dieu. This 
 view of Notre Dame is ftrikingly majeftic. The Cathedral, which 
 infpired a poet to write one of the moft beautiful works of our 
 generation, appears to have exercifed a great influence over 
 Meryon's dreamy fpirit, and to it we owe his lovelieft plate. It 
 is alfo the one which has called for the exercife of the greateft 
 amount of knowledge of drawing, of compofition, and of tafte. 
 For it muft be remembered that photography had not then placed 
 in the hands of artifts redu6lions of views, whereby they could 
 obtain either tracings or valuable hints. Note well how Meryon 
 has preferved in his drawing of this Gothic building all the vaft- 
 nefs and elegance of proportion which are the chara£leriftic types 
 of that branch of French architecture. Meryon-wrote on a few 
 of the early proofs of this plate, one of which is in Mr. J. Fifher's 
 Collection, the following lines : — 
 
 * O toi d^gujiateur de tout morceau gothique 
 Vols id de Paris la noble bafilique 
 Nos Rots, grands et devots, ont voulu la batir. 
 Pour temoigner au maitre un profond repentir. 
 ^uoique bien grand, helas ! on la dit trop petite 
 De nos moindres pecheurs pour contenir I'elite' 
 
 ift trial proof. Before the fky and the buildings of the Hotel 
 Dieu on the left. A variation of this is in Mr. Heywood's 
 Colle<Stion. 
 
 2nd trial proof. Before the completion of the upper marginal 
 line and the Iky to the right. 
 
 I ft St. Completed, but ftill before additions in dry point to 
 the fky to the right, and with marks of the vice on the margin. 
 
 2nd St. The plate cleaned, and the publication line, *(7. 
 
MERTON'S WORKS. ti 
 
 Meryon^ del, fculp. MDCCCLiv. Imp. Rue neuve S^- Etienne du 
 Mont 26.'' 
 
 3rd St. Same as laft ftate, but with the title written with 
 the needle. 
 
 4th St. With the number ' 7^,' the monogram ' C. Mj* 
 The title rewritten in fmall capitals, followed by the date, ' iSjj.^ 
 
 5th St. With *■ Meryon, del. fculp.' in the upper left angle. 
 
 w. 11^ in. h. 6 in. 
 
 53. Le 'Tombeau de Moliere. 
 
 We have failed to difcover what idea poffefled Meryon in 
 choofing, as a tail-piece to the fet of views of Paris, the tomb at 
 Pere la Chaife of the great fatirift, Moliere. On a plinth which 
 fuftains a flaming urn is placed the name '■Afoliere.' Beneath, 
 the galley, which Paris has taken for her heraldic arms, appears 
 as a feal on the knot of the crown of laurels with which this 
 enigmatical but fuggeftive compofition is furrounded. 
 
 Trial proof on the fame copper as the ' Old Gate of the 
 Palais de Juftice ' (No. 33). 
 
 I ft and only State. With the title and publication line, 
 *C. Meryon,/*- mdcccliv. Imp. R. N'- S*- Etienne du Mont, 
 No- 26.' 
 
 The copperplate was given by Meryon to his printer, A. 
 Delatre, and is in exiftence. w. 2^ in. h. 2f in. 
 
T^ I VISION ^O. ///. 
 
 3ICdlateti ^ietns of Pans, 
 ^outienirs of Crauels to 15ourge5, Jl5eto ^ealanti, 
 anti tbz 3ntipoiie0. 
 
 54. EJiampes anciennes^ Rochoux^ ^uai de VHorloge^ No. ig. 
 
 This pharming book-plate was etched for M. Rochoux, the 
 printfeller, in two colours, red and black, by means of two 
 coppers. In the upper portion the Seine and Marne are feated, 
 with their backs to the Gothic doorway of the Palais de Juftice j 
 in the lower part is the equeftrian ftatue of Henri IV. on the 
 platform of the Pont Neuf. 
 
 J ft trial proof, in pure etching. The lamp is placed on a 
 white ftand. 
 
 2nd trial proof. The lamp ftands out againft the fhadow of 
 the arch of the bridge, which is modelled. 
 
 I ft St. The lamp is replaced by the galley, fy mbolical of the 
 City of Paris. 
 
 2nd St. The cables, which form a fort of framework for the 
 compofition, are knotted at the lower angles. w. 4I in. h. 3^ in. 
 
74 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 55. Tourelkj Rue de VEcole-de-Medecine 22 j Paris. 
 
 Trial proof, in pure etching. Before the (ky and before the 
 words ' Fiat lux ' on the book. 
 
 I ft St. Before the word ' Mabat: 
 
 2nd St. Before the two women feated in front of a laun- 
 drefs's cart. 
 
 3rd St. Still no /ky. The upper boundary line is curved in 
 the middle, and in the arch are the monogram ' C. M.' and the 
 words ' Innocence opprimee ' beneath the figure of a child, who 
 hides her face and whofe wings have been pulled off. Lower 
 ftill, La V:6rite defcends from heaven, holding a book whofe 
 pages bear thefe words, 'Fiat lux;' whilft 'La Justice,' 
 enveloped in clouds, lets fall her fcales and fword. In the ftreet 
 below a hurried crowd follow their occupation, two mafons 
 ftanding on a houfe-top above appearing to fee the vifion. 
 Mr. Haden has a proof of this ftate numbered 3, and dated 
 31 Mars. 61. 
 
 4th St. has thefe words in the lower margin : ' Tourelle dite 
 de Marat. Sainte^ inviolable Verite^ divin jiambeau de I'dme ; 
 quand le chaos eji fur la terre^ tu defcends des cieux pour eclairer les 
 hommes^ et regler les decrets de la flriSfe yujiice.' 
 
 5th St. The allegorical figures have been erafed, but the 
 two birds which replace them have not yet been inferted. 
 
 6th St. The legend which appears in the 4th ftate has been 
 erafed and a fky inferted, the title printed below, and ' Imp. Reuon, 
 r. Montfaucon /, Paris.' 
 
 7th St. Two birds and the monogram in the fky ; the title, 
 the date, ' mdccclxi.', and '■Gazette des Beaux-Arts.' 
 
 h. 8i in. w. 7 in. 
 
 Mr. Haden has the original fketch for this etching and a moft 
 careful ftudy for the finial of the Turret. He has alfo an 
 impreflion in which the clouds are worked up in pencil, and one 
 of them is formed into the head of Charlotte Corday. It bears a 
 date in Meryon's writing, ^ 2y yuin.' It was in the houfe with 
 the turret that Marat was afiTaflinated. 
 
MERTON'S WORKS. 75 
 
 56. Rue de Chantres, Paris^ mdccclxii. 
 
 I ft St., in pure etching, before the Iky, the birds in the air, 
 and the animal at the top of the belfry fpire of Notre Dame. 
 
 2nd St. Before the margin has been cleaned, and before the 
 bells which ornament the top. 
 
 3rd St. Finiftied, with two bells and the letters ' "J. B.' in an 
 arch at the top, but before any lettering. 
 
 4th St. With the title and thefe addrefTes : ' Chez Rochoux, 
 ^uai de l^ Horloge ig. Pierron^ i?np. r. Montfaucon /.' 
 
 This plate was deftroyed after one hundred impreffions had 
 been taken off. A proof was hung in the Salon of 1863, but 
 without attradling the attention of the Jury, any more than had 
 any of Meryon's previous exhibits. h. iif in. w. 51 in. 
 
 57. Carved Doorway to an Old House at Bourges. 
 
 This plate was etched in 185 1 — that is to fay, at the outfet of 
 Meryon's career — and is of very delicate workmanfhip. Very 
 few impreffions were ever taken from it. 
 
 Mr. Haden faw Meryon at work on this etching in 1864. 
 He had it fixed upright on an eafel, and was delving upward 
 ftrokes in it with the burin. 
 
 I ft St. In pure etching, before fubfequent working on the left. 
 2nd St. With working on the left. h. 6f in. w. 4f in. 
 
76 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 58. La Rue des 'Toiles, Bourges. 
 
 A dark and winding ftreet, whofe houfes are in the pureft 
 14th and 15th century ftyles. 
 
 Trial proof, in pure etching. 
 
 ift St. With ' C. M. del.fculp. 1853^' and the addrefs, ' Rue 
 N^- St.-Etienne-du-Mont^ 26.'' To the left is feen a dog fcratching 
 up fome filth, and the date ^18^3^ has been placed on a chimney 
 to the right. 
 
 2nd St. The name and addrefs and the dog are effaced. 
 
 3rd St. In the place of the dog, a young foldier, in the 
 coftume of the Middle Ages, talks with two women. 
 
 4th St. With the title. 
 
 The copperplate was given by Meryon to his printer, 
 Delatre, who ftruck off a feries of impreflions for Mr. Woodward, 
 for the Fine Arts Review. 
 
 The proof which Meryon fent to the Salon in 1853 was 
 reje£led by the Jury. 
 
 Meryon wrote to Mr. Burty apropos of this etching, which is 
 fo thoroughly inverted with the fpirit of the Middle Ages, — *A11 
 the upper portions of the houfes are true to nature ; the lower 
 parts had, however, been fo disfigured by modern reftorations, 
 that I obtained from other quarters of the town details which 
 would belt accord with the upper ftories.' h. 8^ in. w. 4I in. 
 
MERTON'S JVORKS. 77 
 
 59. Ancienne Habitation a Bourges. 
 
 The angle of this houfe — built, it is faid, by a mufician who 
 had made his fortune — is formed by a threefold pillar carved in 
 the form of a flageolet. A boy blows a trumpet near to two 
 nuns who are talking to a prielt. 
 
 Trial proof, in pure etching, before any trace of dry point work. 
 
 I ft St. Before the initials 'C. M.' on the ground to the left. 
 The diftance between the plate-mark meafures — in width, 5| in., 
 height, io| in. 
 
 2nd St. The front of the two laft houfes has been covered 
 with a vineftock. 
 
 4th St. With the title, and in this condition publiflied in 
 the Gazette des Beaux-Arts^ after an edition (a 3rd State) had 
 been ft ruck off" on Dutch paper for the fubfcribers to the work. 
 
 A. 9 1 in. w. 5^ in. 
 
78 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 60. Le Pilote de 'Tonga. 
 
 On the inner fide of a frame (in the upper angles of which 
 can be read the initials ' T. T.\ ftanding for the words ' Tonga- 
 Tabou ') is written in red and black lettering this fong, imitative 
 of the iflanders of New Zealand : — 
 
 ' Nous part'ions de Tonga fur un navire de guerre ; vient le pilote 
 dans la frele pirogue. II eji prefque completement nu. Fort et agile ^ 
 en un faut il eji a hord; il va droit au commandant et le falue digne- 
 ment. Le navire ouvre fes voiles au vent ; vivement poujfe par la 
 brife qui les gonjie^ il donne dans l''etroite et danger eufe pajfe! 
 Debout fur un banc de quart^ la tete haute^ tceil attentif^ I'habile 
 pilote indique de gejie la route de navire qui fe joue dans les recifs ! 
 Son attitude eji noble et fiere: tout chez lui denote Paffurance. Sa 
 large poitrine^ de teinte bafanee^ brille au foleil comme un bouclier 
 d'airain^ fes longs cheveux fiottent au vent ... A bord tout fe 
 tait ; officiers et matelots I'admirent en filence ... Et le navire 
 - marche^ mar die toujours. . . . Mais le voie fagrandit . . . Deja 
 la houle de large clapote fous la proue . . . Hourra., vaillant pilote.^ 
 hourra ! — Le paffe eft franche — Pourfuis ta courfe^ o beau navire. 
 devant nous f ouvre I' Ocean. A toi^ merci^ pilote de Tonga!' . . . 
 
 This fong, compofed in profe, after the manner of the 
 inhabitants of New Zealand, was intended as a preface to a feries 
 of fouvenirs of the voyage of the corvette Rhine, which Meryon 
 intended to illuftrate. But the Minifter of the Marine would 
 not give him the commiffion, fpite of the endeavours of 
 Commander Berard, Vice-Admiral under the Empire. The 
 plates which Meryon completed, were badly received by the 
 public, accuftomed as they were to fee his talents employed 
 in the reproduction of the piClurefque fpots of Paris. Their 
 execution, on which he brought to bear even more than his 
 ordinary pains, upfet his brain and haftened his return to the 
 hofpital at Charenton. 
 
 ift St. The edges of the work are unfiniflied. 
 2nd St. With ' Souvenir de Voyage, mdcccxli-vi. a Delatre, 
 imp, rue F. S^- Jacques N. <?/.' h. 8 in. w. 5f in. 
 
MERTON'S WORKS. 79 
 
 61. Le Malingue cryptogame. 
 
 ' One day ' (fo wrote Meryon to Mr. Burty after having 
 read the notice of his work in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts)^ ' in 
 one of the walks which I ufed to take in order to pafs the time 
 at the end of our fojourn at Akaroa, where we were placed to 
 prote<Sl the French whalers, I faw in the corner of a wood of 
 lofty foreft trees this poor little fungus. Its ephemeral exiftence 
 probably only dated back to the morning which had followed a 
 rainy night, Diftorted in form and pinched and puny from its 
 birth, I could not but pity it. It feemed to me fo entirely typical 
 of the inclemerxy, and at the fame time the whimficality, of an 
 incomplete and fickly creation, that I could not deny it a corner 
 in my ^'•fouvenirs de voyage" and fo I drew it carefully, intending 
 fome time or other to introduce it into one of my Akaroa 
 fubjefls.' 
 
 I ft St. In pure etching, 
 
 2nd St. With the monogram »C, M: fometimes in red, 
 fometimes in black, 
 
 3rd St. With the ferns for a background ; the title, ' N. Z. 
 MDCCCXLV.' monogram in red, and beneath ' mdcccxlv.' and 
 * P. Pi err on hnp.* 
 
 This plate, etched on copper, only gave off a few impreffions. 
 
 h. 2| in. w. 7\ in. 
 
8o CATALOGUE OF 
 
 62. Head of a New Holland Dog. 
 
 This little, but very expreflive etching, was engraved on 
 aluminium. It has been reproduced in facfimile in a book which 
 abounds in reminifcences of the country in which Meryon pafled 
 fo happy a time. The work is entitled, ^atre Annees en Ocean'ie. 
 H'ljioire naturelle de l^Ho?nme et des Societes qu'il organ'ife. Adceurs 
 et cojiumes de certaines Papons Aujiraliens ; Anatomic et phyfiologie 
 du plus arr'iere des Noirs^ par A. E. Foley. Paris : T. B. Bailliere 
 et Fils^ 1876. 
 
 Mr. A. E. Foley, retired Naval Lieutenant, but now a 
 Do6lor, in fpeaking of the illuftration at the end of the volume 
 (vol. ii. p. 262), fays : — ' Tete d'un chien fauvage de I'Auftralie 
 orientale, deffinee d'apres une eauforte qu'a faite mon defunt ami 
 Charles Meryon, ancien officier de marine.' 
 
 I ft St. The locks of hair are lefs marked, and the muzzle is 
 lefs finely drawn than in the 2nd State. h. 2f in. w. 2f in. 
 
 63, Voyage de la Corvette ^ Le Rhin' — Nouvelle Zelande. 
 
 Greniers indigenes et habitations a Akaroa (^Pres- 
 
 qu'lle de Banks)^ 1^45' 
 
 The natives — men, women, and children — welcome a 
 
 European. In the diftance, to the right, ftretch a foreft and 
 
 fwelling hills. 
 
 I ft St. In pure etching, before the fky. 
 2nd St. With the fky drawn in dry point. 
 3rd St. Before the monogram ' C. M.' and the title. 
 4th St. With the addrefs of the printer, A, Delatre. 
 A proof was exhibited at the Salon in 1865, This and the 
 following copper were etched in i860. w. 9^ in. h. 5^ in. 
 
MERTON'S fVORKS. 
 
 64. Voyage de la Corvette *Le Rbin^ — Nouvelle Caledonie. 
 Grand Cafe indigene fur le chemin de Ballorde ^ 
 Poepo^ 1845. 
 
 A woman carrying on her head a bafket of fruit, and a boy 
 holding in his hands a large fifh, are directing their fteps towards 
 a group of natives afTembled before a hut. 
 
 I ft St. In pure etching. The ground to the right of the 
 plate nearly white. 
 
 2nd St. Before the monogram ' C. Af.' in the fky or the 
 marginal line at the top. 
 
 3rd St. Before the addrefs of '-J. Deiatre, imp. rue Saint 
 Jacques ^^J.' 
 
 4th St. With the title and addrefs. w. 9I in. h. 5f in. 
 
 65. Voyage du ^ Rhin' Oceanie, Lots a Uvea {PVallis). Pec he 
 aux Palmes^ 1845. 
 Savages, immerfed in the water to their middle, are fifhing. 
 I ft St. In pure etching, before the fky. 
 
 2nd St. Before the marginal line completed and the crofs 
 lines in the fky. 
 
 3rd St. Finifhed, but before the title and before ' C. M. del. 
 etfculp. 1863: 
 
 4th St. With the addrefs oi^Pierron imp. r. Montfaucon /.' 
 
 w. 13^ in. /;. b\ in. 
 
8 2 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 66. Nouvelle Zelande. Prejquile de Banks, 1^45- Pointe 
 dite des Charbonniers a Akaroa. Peche a la Seine. 
 
 Fifhing in a creek overhung by barren mountains. 
 
 ift St. In pure etching. 
 
 2nd St. With two boats alongfide the fhore. 
 
 3rd St. With one boat only, and with the addrefs of the 
 printer Pierron (as in No. 65), and the title. An impreffion of 
 this ftate was exhibited in the Salon in 1864. w. I2f in. h. 6 in. 
 
 67. Diverfes pieces gravees. Colle5le^ g^in, butin de courje et 
 de chajfey faits au mouillage et pendant le voyage a le 
 Nouvelle Zelande, accompli de mdccclii. a mdcccxlvi. 
 par le Navire Rhinjous les ordres de M. le Capitaine 
 de Vaijfeau {mrt Contre-amiral en 18^2), A. Berard, 
 Commandant lafiation a Akaroa, prefqulle de Banks, 
 1866. 
 
 Trial proof. In pure etching, fimply in outline. 
 
 I ft St. The principal frame is ftill empty. 
 
 2nd St. With an indication in outline of the fmaller frames, 
 in which one reads in the following (3rd) ftate to the left ' Uvea, 
 let Mulgraves, Tonga ;' and to the right ^Ballade, Ta'i'ti, Onecke.' 
 
 4th and laft St. With the addrefs 'Paris, C. M. Imp. rue 
 Duperre 20,' the whole forming the cover in which he fold the 
 fmall etchings relative to his recolledions of travel which follow. 
 
 w. 9I in. h. 6 in. 
 
MERTON'S WORKS. 83 
 
 68. Nouvelle Zelande. Prefquik de Banks. Etat de la -petite 
 colonie franfaife d' Akaroa vers 184^. Voyage du 
 Rhin la chaumiere du colon vieux Joldat a Akaroa, 
 ]Sl'- Zelande, 1845. 
 
 Trial proof in pure etching, before the clouds and the work 
 on the mountains in the diftance. 
 
 I ft St. Before the lettering. A proof in Mr. Haden's collec- 
 tion has ' 7 Mai 66 ' in Meryon's writing. 
 
 2nd St. With the title and the publication line — ' C. M. del. 
 Sculp. 186^ f ^ Pierron imp. rue Montfau^on^ which will be found 
 in the laft ftate of all this feries. h. 3I in. w. 3 in. 
 
 69. Pre-volant des lies Mulgraves Oceanie. 
 
 I ft St. Before the title at the top. 
 
 2nd St. With thefe words, ' La Harpe Oaftenne.^ On an 
 impreffion of this ftate in Mr. Burty's coUedtion is written, in 
 Meryon's handwriting, that he had only printed off" 20 im- 
 preffions. 
 
 3rd St. With the letter '/,' or the No. '7,' on the waves. Z' 
 
 4th St. With the word * Rebus ' and the title. 
 
 h. 5f in. w. 3I in. 
 
84 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 70. Petit Prince Dito [Ballade N'"'- Cal'). 
 
 I ft St. With the word ' Fantafta: 
 
 2nd St. With a ballad, which, however, has no rational 
 interpretation, and with the publication line, * C. M. f'^*- Paris^ 
 Fevrier^ 1 86^^ Pierron imp. Paris. Meryon reprefented the Prince 
 as a favage, his head enclofed in a head-drefs, or rather an 
 enormous mafk, playing the flute and riding on a reftive horfe. 
 
 h. 6f in. w. 5| in. 
 
 71. A Monfieur Eugene Blery. 
 
 .' A vousy Blery ^ mon maitre^ 
 ^ui rri'aveT, fait connaitre 
 Les fecrets de voire art., 
 
 * * * * 
 
 ]\4a mufe adolefcente 
 De fon unique avoir ■ 
 • Veut offrir le premice.^ 
 
 It is not necefTary to further tranfcribe the fixteen verfes 
 which compofe this eiFufion. 
 
 Mr. Eugene Blery, who was born at Fontainebleau in 1805, 
 has won feveral medals, and was decorated in 1846 for his 
 painting and engraving. He has been a continuous exhibitor of 
 landfcapes, and ftudies of trees and plants, drawn or etched after 
 ) nature. The foreft of Fontainebleau, the neighbourhoods of 
 Senlifle and Cernay, having furnifhed him with the majority of his 
 fubje£ts. He feems to have ftudied the manner of J. T. Boiflieu. 
 
 The plate has the publication line, * C. Meryon f*- Imp. rue 
 N^- S'- Etienne du Mont.^ 26.^ h. 5 in. w. 2| in. 
 
MERTON'S WORKS. 85 
 
 72. La Loi Lunaire. 
 
 The Loi Lunaire was one of the firft of the productions 
 which Ihowed to Meryon's friends his mental derangement, 
 more, perhaps, by the importance which he himfelf attached to it 
 than by the ideas which it difclofed. He therein drew an upright 
 box, or rather coffin, in which he propofed that man and wife 
 {hould fleep upright : his notion being that a horizontal pofition 
 and the luxury of a bed weakened both mind and body. The 
 general compofition of the plate is, notwithftanding, characfteriftic 
 and powerful. 
 
 I ft St. Before the infcription in the inner frame. 
 2nd St. With the infcription, the fignature, and the publica- 
 tion line, 'CM. imp. r. Dupetre 20^ Paris: D. 66.' 
 
 h. 9f in. w. 6f in. 
 
 73. A fecond flate of this Subje^^ on a /mailer fcale, and varying 
 in many particulars. 
 
 Only State. In the left top corner the monogram, below 
 to the Xeh^^C.M. imp. r. Dupetre 20 ;' to the right, 'P^m; 
 -D'- 66. h. 44 ill. w. 3I in. 
 
86 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 74. La Loi Solaire. 
 
 The fun's rays fhine from behind, and at the lower angles of 
 a tablet. Below an antique lamp is placed. On the tablet are 
 the following fingular words in red and black : — 
 
 SiJ'/tais 
 Empereur ou Rot 
 De quelque puijfant ctat 
 {Ce que je ne voudrais ni ne pouvais etre) ; — 
 p^u que les Grandes Cites ne fait enfant ees 
 ^ue par la Pareffe^ I' Avarice^ la Crainte^ 
 la Luxure^ et autres mauvaifes paffions ; je fe- 
 rais elaboree une loi^ determinant d''une maniere, aufft 
 preci%e que poffihle^ l^espace de terrain^ avec ou 
 fans culture fforcement adjoint a toute habitation 
 de capacite voulue^ pour un nombre donne de creatures 
 humaines; de telle forte que /'Air et le Soleil. 
 Ces deux principes effentiels de la Vie, puis- 
 fent toujours y etre largement repartis. 
 
 Cette loi; fource de tout bien materiel 
 et confdquemment morale fappellerait 
 Loi Solaire. 
 
 One ftate only, figned 'C. Meryon fit. Paris^ mdccclv. 
 Imp: R. F. S. Jacques, <?/.' h. 4f in. w. 3iin. 
 
 75 y 76. Trials for Engraving in Reliefs by the aid of which 
 Banknotes may be forged. 
 
 On thefe trials, of which not more than two or three proofs 
 at the outfide were taken, on a black ground are, the word 
 '■France,^ a fragment of an Etrufcan frieze, a head of a woman, 
 and growing plants. 
 
 ift St. Before a fort of reverfed D. 
 
MERTON'S WORKS. 87 
 
 77 ^ 78. Rebuses. Ci-gtt la Vendetta Surannee^ et Ber anger 
 ne fut veritablement forty car il rieut jamais la clef 
 des chants. 
 
 77. On a block of ftone is drawn a woman with a tub in 
 front of her. She wafhes with a fponge the letter 'Z).' The 
 block refts on the letters 'annee,' and above is another block, 
 fhaped like an anvil, on which is placed a fledge-hammer. 
 The whole is enclofed by a circle, round which is the date 
 * MDCCCLxiiii,' and below in red the word ^Rebus.^ The pub- 
 lication line is 'C AI. fecit. Pierron^ imp.^ r. Montfaucon^ i. 
 
 h. 3 in. w. 3 in. 
 
 78. A bird, fome verfes, broken columns — a table with bottles 
 and glafles and the infcription *■ Rejiaurateur en renom — Du 
 Palais Royal'' — a fort feen from above with the infcription ^ Pays 
 des Poulardes^ — a barrel labelled ^ Piece de Salaifon^ — a bather — 
 the crofs-bar of an anchor ere6l, furmounted by a wreath, and a 
 key forming a monogram. 
 
 The titles, 'Chants myfiiques et maritimes — Chants nationaux 
 — Chant religieuXj chants guerriers^ Marfeillaife — Chants papu- 
 la ires Elyjeens^ Firgile, Horner e. 
 
 *C. M. fecit 1 86 J — chez Rochauxy ^ai de l^Horloge ip ; 
 imp. Pierron^ r. Montfaucon. h. 12 in. w. 5| in. 
 
 There is but little to remark upon thefe rebufes. They do 
 not date from his laft years, and confequently they fhow with 
 what Angular diftradlions he varied his more ferious work. 
 
 There is a firft ftate of each befoie the publication line has 
 been engraved with the burin. 
 
88 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 79. Dejign for a frame for the Portrait of a Printer, epitomiftng 
 in an allegorical manmr the hijiory of the invention 
 and progrefs of Printing. 
 
 The feries of ftates of this etching, which is of but little 
 intereft from a purely artiftic point of view, is, in a manner, 
 infinite. For a whole month Meryon, who lived near Mr. Burty, 
 brought him nearly every morning a frefh proof. The frame 
 was intended to contain the portrait of a printer and bookfeller at 
 Fontenay, Vendee, M. Gueraud ; it was ordered by an amateur, 
 alfo a Vendean, and a well-known man of letters, M. Benjamin 
 Fillon. 
 
 The following are the principal remarks on the ftates, of 
 which we cannot give all, efpecially as the etching is never likely 
 to be thought of much value: — 
 
 I ft St. In pure etching. 
 
 2nd St. Before the inner frame on the middle of the copper 
 has been cut out, 
 
 3rd St. Before the titles on the back of the volumes. 
 
 4th St. With a Lynx^ in the lower portion of the plate, 
 upholding the book of the Code and the Laws. 
 
 5th St. The Lynx has been effaced. 
 
 6th St. The Lynx has been replaced by a fword placed 
 before the book. Meryon's name to the right has been replaced 
 by the name of the printer * A. Beillet.^ 
 
 7th St. On the back of one of the books are feen the words 
 ' bains froids.' 
 
 8th St. Printed with a fecond plate in the centre, Ihowing 
 the portrait of M. Queraud. h. 6i in. w. 5f in. 
 
ME J? TON'S TVORKS. 89 
 
 80. Frontifpiece for a Catalogue of the Works of the E^igraver^ 
 'Thomas de Leu. 
 
 M. Thomas Arnauldet, at that time attached to the Cabinet 
 des Eftampes, was about to publifh the catalogue of a draughtfman 
 and engraver, Thomas de Leu, a dehcate and learned workman, 
 born at Paris about 1570, to whom we owe the portraits of 
 many of the celebrated perfonages of his time. He obtained 
 from Meryon this etching, the allegorical meaning of which is 
 very obfcure, 
 
 A man of emaciated appearance is feated at the foot of a tree ; 
 he is fnifFed at by a wolf, and a ferpent crawls at his feet. He 
 appears to be blinded by a ray which is refle<Sled from a mirror 
 held by a woman who ftands in front of him. A fountain, in 
 the ftyle of the French Renaiflance, ferves as a bafe to a frame, 
 in which one reads the words, ' Thomas de Leu. EJfai du Catalogue 
 de fon oeuvre^ precede d'une notice hijiorique par Thomas Arnauldet.'' 
 On fcrolls are the date * 1579^ ^"'^ ^^ names of the perfonages 
 whofe portraits Thomas de Leu has reproduced, — ' Bourbon^ 
 Lorraine.^ Montmorency^ alfo ' 161^ ' and * Brijfon, Montaigne^ 
 Pajferet^'' then ^Portraits ' and */*. de Brach^ Lafphaife^ Rouillard^ 
 Baugrand^ Legagneur^ W. Raleigh ; ' on the fountain, ' Paris, 
 MDCCCLVi.' and on little frames the names of the artifts whofe 
 pidlures Thomas de Leu reproduced, — ' Fournier^ les ^uejnel, 
 Ant-Caron, T. Rabel, les Dumonjiier, T. Bunel.* 
 
 I ft trial proof Pure etching, in line. 
 
 2nd St. The folds of the draperies are more defined. 
 
 3rd St. Background is (haded with horizontal lines. 
 
 4th St. The body of the man is modelled, except the arms : 
 a good deal of work is ftill wanting to complete the fountain. 
 All thefe trial proofs are before any lettering. This lettering, 
 as well as that of a large number of the etchings which he either 
 made or retouched after his return from the hofpital at Charenton, 
 were not written in by him, although he was an adept at handling 
 the burin, in little ftrokes. He told me that he had them done 
 by an artift who was efpecially good at this work, but he never 
 told me the name. 
 
 I ft St. Entirely finiftied. The entire plate has been worked 
 up by the burin. Meryon in the fecond period of his work. 
 
90 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 that is, in all plates executed after the ' Rue Pirouette aux Halles^ 
 deepened and widened the lines with an exceflively (harp burin ; 
 and as a confequence he hardly ever rebit his plates. I have, 
 however, feen him feveral times rebite fmall parts of a copper, 
 oftentimes five or fix confecutive times, with extreme patience, 
 in order to obtain a richer tone than the brilliant but dry tone 
 which is imparted by the burin. 
 
 2nd St. With ' C. M. Del. et Sculp. 1866. Imp. P'lerron rue 
 Montfaucon 7, Paris. 
 
 The copper-plate is in exiftence. h. 6g in. w. \\ in. 
 
 81. Vue de I* and en Louvre du Cote de la Seine en 16^1. 
 
 A large plate etched after a painting by Zeeman in the 
 Louvre. 
 
 Trial proof in pure etching. 
 
 ifl: St. Finifhed in a manner, and in this ftate delivered by 
 Meryon to the Print-room of the Louvre. Before any Letters. 
 2nd St. With the title. 
 The plate is in exiftence in the Print-room of the Louvre. 
 
 h. I of in. w. 6i in. 
 
MERTOKTS WORKS. 91 
 
 82. Le Minijiere de la Marine. 
 
 Trial proof, in pure etching, before the clouds. 
 
 I ft St. With the drawings of boats, which float in the fky, 
 but before the fabre thrown to the ground in the ftreet. 
 
 2nd St. With the figures and boats in the fky, the fword 
 on the ground, and the monogram ' C. M.^ in the centre of the 
 lower margin. 
 
 3rd St. With the title and the addrefs of '■A. Cadart^ impri- 
 meur editeur.' 
 
 The plate was publiftied by the French Etching Club, and is 
 in exiftence. h. 6| in. w. 5^ in. 
 
 83. College Henri IF. 
 
 This large plate was a commiffion from Meryon's two old 
 friends, Meffieurs Philipon and Salicis, and is ftill their property. 
 A confiderable portion of it is fantaftically conceived, and is eafily 
 diftinguifhed from the remainder, which is moft faithfully exait. 
 Mr. Burty once had in his pofl'eflion fketches of feveral portions 
 of the fubje^l, which had been drawn in fmall fragments, and 
 then pieced together. 
 
 Mer)'on wrote a long defcriptive letter anent his extraordinary 
 production. It appeared in 1864 in the journal L'Unlon des Arts. 
 The following are charadleriftic extracts from it, and relate to 
 the firft ftate of the plate : — 
 
 * Toute la partie gauche de ma gravure eji occupee par une 
 fuite de perfonnages glijfant ou patinant. ^ti'il me foit permis de dire 
 que maintenant que fai fait une ajfe% dure experience de la vie^ je 
 conjid^re cette pratique comme fort importante pour lesjeunes gens. . . . 
 Le trois petits perfonnages le plus a gauche caufent ou difcutent . . . 
 Suivant F importance de la penfee que fy ai attache^ la figure qui 
 reprefente la Generofite eft beaucoup plus grande que les autres. fai 
 pris en outre cette licence de fuppofer de la glace^ fuivant une partie 
 
92 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 de le facade du premier plan^ quoique pres de-la les arbres foient 
 garnis des leurs feuilles . ' 
 
 In a firft ftate, which he called ' referve^ et tire a /p epreuves^' 
 Meryon had connected fantafy with reality, by placing in the fky, 
 contiguous to the college buildings, certain remembrances of his 
 travels, of which this was his explanation : — 
 
 ' Cette forte de triangle ou feSieur place au-dejfus des deux divinites 
 marines, d'' ou p epand la lumiere fur toute la compofition fantajlique^ 
 pent rappeler le triangle myjiique et meme cet injirument^ muni de ce 
 qu^on appelle grand et petit miroir, a V aide defquels les navigateurs 
 determinent leur pofition fur le globe. Cette boule noire qui fe voit fur 
 le devant de la voile de la prenii'ere e?nbarcation^ ejl la coiffure^ en 
 form: de bonnet de grenadier, d^un mafque particulier en ufage dans 
 une danfe de la Nouvelle-Cal edonie. Sur cette meme voile fe detache 
 un oifeau, les ailes a moitie fermees, qui fond fur quelque proie, a la 
 maniere de I'oifeau de mer connu fous le nom commun de fou. 
 A r aplomb de cet oifeau^ fur le plate forme de la pirogue^ pofe 
 obliquement fur un foyer d'oii l^echappe de la fumee^ le pot ou 
 marmite fpherique ou ces naturels font cuire le produit de leur peche. 
 Dans le coin de gauche^ monts^ habitans, champs cultives^ petits 
 perfonnages dont on dijiingue plufieurs fur le fommet du pic, viaduc 
 lointain avec train, font allufion aux peripeties des voyages. . . .' 
 
 In an early impreffion in the collection of Mr. Haden the 
 ' Boule noire ' has not yet been inferted, nor in the left upper 
 corner are there any of the * monts, champs cultives^ Sec. The 
 plate is bare of anything to the left of the large tower and the 
 line of buildings beneath it ; the fky, too, is unfiniflied, and has 
 not yet received its ^ forte de triangle.' 
 
 2nd St. iMeryon, after having completed the left portion of 
 the fky, infcribed on the right lower margin of the plate a long, 
 explanatory notice, which it is hardly necefTary to fet out here. 
 
 3rd St., of which ten imprefTions were taken off. On the fea 
 is to be feen a fmall fteamboat, and in the centre the monogram, 
 
 ' c m: 
 
 About feventy imprefHons in all of the foregoing ftates having 
 been taken off, Meryon erafed the unnatural part of the work, and 
 finifhed his plate from nature, but it mufl needs be faid with the 
 refult of making it very heavy. This is what he wrote as to the 
 change : — 
 
 ' Dans cette piece, reproduSiion textuelle et minutieufe de la 
 realite, fai appofe au milieu du trait fuperieur deux medallions 
 
MERTON'S WORKS, ^i, 
 
 portant les effigies des deux fouverains fous r invocation defqueh ejl 
 place le Lycee {Henri IV. et Napoleon III. en Jiatues cquejires). 
 Entre ces medaillons., une tablette fur laquelle on lit la devife latine 
 par laquelle je me fuis propoje de refumer le penfee qui avait prejide a 
 mon ceuvre. 
 
 ' Dans cet etat^ le fond eji en tous points grave avec une precifton 
 allant prefque jufqu'a la minutie. fe citerai^ vers le centre du college^ 
 a la facade du corps de logis mitoyen donnant fur une des cours^ un 
 cadran folaire en pierre, Relevant fur le toit ; dans le coin a gauche, 
 une partie de Saint-Etienne du Mont et de V Ecole polytechnique ; 
 dans I' angle en haut et a droite, Saint-Medard ; tout-a-fait a la 
 limite du coin de gauche.^ le pavilion d'entree^fur le quai, de I' entrepot 
 des vins; au-deffous du rnedaillon de droite^ la prison de Sainte-Pelagie^ 
 oil Von peut dijiinguer les gue rites des faSfionaires^ et fur les cretes des 
 toits, les petites voies de pierre qui les relient. A V aplomb encore de 
 ce medallion^ vers le centre^ en partie dans Vombre, P entree de la 
 rue Copeau, oil ton aper^oit fur le pave quelques paffants. 
 
 * Ufant de mon droit d auteur pour cette piece^ fai indique par 
 mes initiales C. et M. {avec une petite croix entre les deux lettres) une 
 maifon^ Rue Saint-Etienne du Mont, 26, que fai habit ee pendant un 
 affe% long laps de temps, oii fai fait ma fuite intitulee *■ Eaux- fortes 
 fur Paris,' A proximite, une autre oii fai connu un peu, ou plutot 
 vu et entendu quelquefois une jeune file dont je metais inconfidere- 
 ment epris a caufe fur tout de fa fort gracieufe voix, laquelle me mit 
 plus d''une fois a la torture, et qui eut une affez grande influence fur 
 certains kjenements de ma vie, mais influence plutot, helas I nefajle.* 
 
 This ftate bore the infcription, '■Vu: a vol d'oifeau du College 
 Henri IV. ou Lycee Napoleon,^ 
 
 4th St. A frefh defcription, (horter but not much clearer, 
 was engraved in the centre of the lower margin, and in this 
 condition, with the addrefsof the printer, the plate was publifhed. 
 
 w. 19 in. h. I if in. 
 
94 CATALOGUE. 
 
 84. Bain fr Old J Chevrier, dit de VEcole. 
 One of the bathing-fheds on the Seine. 
 
 Trial proof, in pure etching, before the fky and the fhadows 
 on the baths. In Mr. Haden's coUecStion. 
 
 I ft St. Copper, 6f in. w. 5! /;., before the monogram, 'C M^ 
 
 2nd St. Copper, cut to 5f in. w. 5I in. h. with ' Bain froid^ 
 Chevrier^ on a board above the baths. 
 
 3rd St. The title, publication line, and monogram. Ten 
 impreffions were ftruclc off with a verfe, etched on another 
 copper, printed thereon in blue ink. 
 
 Mr, Haden has the drawings for this etching, figned ' C. M. 
 1864: 
 
D 
 
 IVISION 3^. IV, 
 
 Portraits, 
 
 85. * Portrait of Meryon, three-quarter length, 
 
 SEATED BEFORE AN EaSEL.' 
 
 No impreffions of this were kept by Meryon. It was he who 
 informed me of its exiftence. It was one of his firft attempts 
 at engravings and was originally oval in form. 
 
 86. 'Portrait of Mons. Decourtive, Scholar of 
 Medicine, Author of "A Thesis on the 
 Hadswick." ' 
 
 This portrait was etched by Meryon whilft under the influ- 
 ence of Rembrandt. We only know of one proof, and that is 
 cut down. 
 
 Meryon has reprefented his friend three-quarter length, feated, 
 and having near him a violin and chemical utenfils. He has a 
 high forehead, flowing locks thrown back, and a penetrating look. 
 The light illumines brightly the left of his face. 
 
 The diftance from the chin to the top of the hair is about 
 2 inches. 
 
96 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 87. 'Portrait of M. Eugi^ne Bli^ry, after Buttera.' 
 
 We are unable to give any particulars of this portrait, having 
 never feen a copy, and only being cognifant that it exifts. 
 
 * Portrait of Mons. Casimir Lecomte.' 
 
 The initials 'G. B.^ are thofe of the painter,' Gustave Boulanger.' 
 This was a facfimile of his drawing. 
 
 The portrait of Monf. Cafimir Lecomte is three-quarter 
 length. He is reprefented as feated, the head bare, one of his 
 hands is pafled beneath his waiftcoat, the other holds his cane 
 and his hat. 
 
 ift St. In pure etching, before 'C. Meryon del aqua-forte^ 
 1856^ d' aprh G. B.' 
 
 2nd St. With the infcription. h. 13! in. w. lof in. 
 
 89. Evarijie Boulay-Paty. 
 
 This portrait, treated with great care, was etched after a 
 medallion in bronze of the fculptor David of Angers. It was 
 intended to be placed at the commencement of a colle6tion of 
 poetry. 
 
 ift St. Before any lettering. 
 
 2nd St. Before 'C. M. fc. 1861^ but with the addrefs, 
 *'Deldtre Imp. r. des Feuillantines a Paris.' 
 
 3rd St. With both monogram and addrefs. 
 
 Diameter^ 4^ in. 
 
MERTON'S WORKS, 97 
 
 90. Franfois Viete. 
 
 A portrait copied from a frontifpiece of a work written by 
 this celebrated mathematician. It appeared in Nos. 92, 93, and 
 95, in the fecond volume of a work publifhed by Monf, Benjamin 
 Fillon, with the title, ^Poitou et Vendee.'' It is almoft entirely 
 re-engraved with the burin. It gave a great amount of trouble 
 to Meryon, who was at the time very ill. There are many 
 different trial proofs, and we have only here mentioned the 
 principal. 
 
 Trial proof, in pure etching. Before the cloak. 
 
 ift St. With the cloak, (haded, and with fantaftic figures. 
 
 2nd St. With the monogram * C. M.^ a roll of manufcript, 
 cheffmen, &c., and ^ A. Beillet imp.^ 
 
 3rd St. Finiftied, with the lettering as above. It alfo bears 
 the addrefs, '■J. Beillet^ quai de la Tournelle j^^ a Paris.* 
 
 h. 7| in. w. \l in. 
 
 91. Pierre Nivelky eve que de Lucon, ne a ^royes en 158^^ 
 mort a Lucon le 10 F&v. 1660. 
 
 An oval portrait in an allegorical framework. After an old 
 engraving. Etched on tin. 
 
 Trial proof, in pure etching. 
 
 I ft St. Finiftied, with ' Uaprh M. L. Imp. A. Beillet^ ^ de 
 la Tournelle j^, Paris' h. 6f in. w. 4I in. 
 
 H 
 
98 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 92. T. Agrippa d' AuhignL 
 
 A copy, or perhaps rather a free-hand interpretation, of a 
 lithograph portrait, figned Hibert, of this celebrated leader of the 
 Calvinifts. The lithograph being after the pidlure preferved by 
 the Council at Geneva. 
 
 I ft St. Before any lettering. 
 
 2nd St. With the title, '■ C. M. d'aprh W- Imp. A. Beillet, 
 ^ de la Tournelle ^^^ Paris.' 
 
 3rd St. Entirely reworked. The tin — for it was on this 
 material that the piiture was engraved — is cut clofe up to the 
 marginal lines. h. 4| in. w. 4 in. 
 
 93. Jean Bejley^ d'apres L. IfaCy at. yOj ann. 1642. 
 
 Jean Befley was one of the hiftorians of the province of 
 Poitou. 
 
 I ft St. Before the margins of the plate were cleaned, before 
 the marginal line, and before a great deal of fubfequent work. 
 
 2nd St. Before the monogram ' C. M.^ 
 
 3rd St. With the monogram and title, ' 'Jean Bejley^ 1861, 
 d'apres L. Ifac. Imp. A. Beillet^ ^. de la Tournelle jj.' 
 
 h. 5f in. w. 4| in. 
 
MERTON'S WORKS. 99 
 
 94. Rene de Burdiga/e, S''- de Laudonnierey Sablais^ d'apres 
 Crijpin de Pas. 
 
 An oval portrait, in an emblematical frame, after an old 
 
 engraving. 
 
 I ft St. In pure etching. 
 
 2nd St. Before the initials ' C. M.^ 
 
 3rd St. With the device, ' Si Dieu me garde^ 'firay a fin^ 
 and the publication line, ^ A. Beillet^ Imp. ^ai de la Tournelle j^^ 
 Paris.^ h. 6 in. w. 4§ in. 
 
 95. * Portrait of the Printer, Armand Guj^raud, from 
 A Photograph.' 
 
 This little, fquare, and truly hideous portrait, was placed in 
 the emblematical frame juft defcribed. It was engraved with the 
 burin on a foft metal — tin — which only gave off a few proofs. 
 
loo CATALOGUE. 
 
 96. Louis Jacques Marie Bizeul. 
 
 Portrait of a Breton archaeologift, from a photograph. 
 
 Trial proof Pure etching. 
 
 I ft St. With fome burin woric, with the burr unremoved on 
 the overcoat. 
 
 2nd St. With certain lines of the burin extending over the 
 edges and not effaced. 
 
 3rd St. Finifhed, but before the title. 
 
 4th St. With the title and *C. M.fculp^- j86i^ imp. Beillet^ 
 Paris.^ and above ' JS"^^' (^^^^^ de fan agej h. 6| in. w. \~ in. 
 
 97. Benjamin Fillon. 
 
 This portrait, which was taken from a photograph, exag- 
 gerates — nay, almoft caricatures — the energetic, but never 
 ferocious, countenance of M. Benjamin Fillon. 
 
 Trial proof, in pure etching. 
 ift St. Before the title. 
 2nd St. With the title. 
 

 Lfl^P'^:^*^^'^^'*^^ 
 
 
 i^pf^j^ 
 
 
 ^^K^^S^ 
 
 te^v^lre^ 
 
 ^^^ 
 
 ^^>^ ^'^■> 
 
 ^^^^^ 
 
 '/V^^^ 
 
 ^^^ 
 
 aipftafietical 3!nDer of (ZBtcftmgs, 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Ancienne Habitation ^ Bourges . . . . . 
 
 77 
 
 Arms fymbolical of the City of Paris . . , . 
 
 54 
 
 Bain froid, Chevrier, dit de I'Ecole . . . . . 
 
 94 
 
 Bdranger ne fut vdritablement fort . . . . . 
 
 87 
 
 Befley, Jean 
 
 98 
 
 Bizeul, Louis Jacques Maria 
 
 100 
 
 Bl^ry, M. Eugene, Portrait of 
 
 84 
 
 Bl^ry, k M. Eugene 
 
 84 
 
 Boulay-Paty, Evarifte 
 
 96 
 
 Burdigale, Ren^ de 
 
 99 
 
 Carved Doorway to an old Houfe at Bourges . 
 
 75 
 
 Chenonceau ....... 
 
 39 
 
 Chevet de St. Martin-fur-Renelle .... 
 
 45 
 
 Ci-git la Vendetta Surann^e . . . . - . 
 
 87 
 
 College Henri IV 
 
 9» 
 
 Convent du Capucins fran9ais a Athcnes, Entree du . 
 
 37 
 
 D'Aubigne, Teodore Agrippa .... 
 
 • 98 
 
 Decourtive, Mons., Portrait of ... . 
 
 95 
 
 Diverfes Pieces gravies, &c. ..... 
 
 82 
 
 Eaux-fortes fur Paris 
 
 50 
 
 Eftampes anciennes, Rochoux .... 
 
 73 
 
 Faubourg de Saint Marceaux, Entrance of the , 
 
 35 
 
 Fillon, Benjamin ....... 
 
 100 
 
 Fluftuat nee mergitur ...... 
 
 54 
 
 Frame, Defign for a . 
 
 88 
 
 Frontifpiece for a Catalogue of the Works of the Engraver 
 
 
 Thomas de Leu ...... 
 
 • 89 
 
im? ; ' /• ALPHJBETICAL INDEX. 
 
 Galerie de Notre Dame, La . 
 
 Galliot of Jean de Vyl at Rotterdam 
 
 Gateway, Verfes on the Old , 
 
 Grand Chatelet a Paris, Le . 
 
 Gueraud, Portrait of the Printer, Armand 
 
 Head of a N^ew Holland Dog 
 
 L'Abfide de Notre Dame de Paris 
 
 L'ancien Louvre du Cote de la Seine en 1651, Vue de 
 
 Lecomte, M, Cafimir, Portrait of 
 
 L'Elp^rance 
 
 L'Hotellerie de la Mort 
 
 Loi Lunaire, large 
 
 fmall 
 Loi Solaire, La 
 Louvre, Vue de l'ancien 
 
 Malingue cryptogame, Le 
 Meryon, Portrait of 
 Miniftere de la Marine, Le 
 Morgue, La, 1850 
 
 Nivelle, Pierre 
 
 Nouvelle Zelande, Pointe dite des Charbonniers 
 „ „ Etat de la petite colonie fran9aife 
 
 Ox and the Afs, The , . . . , . 
 
 Palais de Jufticc, Old Gateway of the 
 
 Paris vers le fin du XVIP Siecle, Partie de la Cite de 
 
 Paflage-boars from Calais to Flufhing 
 
 Paflerelle du Pont-au-Change . 
 
 Pavilion of Mademoifelle and a part of the Louvre, The 
 
 Petit Pont, Le 
 
 Petit Prince Dito ..... 
 Pierrefonds, View of the Ruins of the Chateau 
 Pilote de Tonga, Le . . . . 
 
 Pompe de Notre Dame, La . 
 Pont au Change, Le . . . . 
 
 Pont Neuf, Le 
 
 Pont Neuf et la Samaritaine, Le 
 
 Pont Notre-Dame, L'Arche du 
 
 Prefentation to King Louis XI. of the work Falere Maxime 
 
 ■)0 
 
 36 
 53 
 49 
 99 
 
 80 
 
 70 
 90 
 96 
 
 69 
 
 8S 
 
 85 
 86 
 
 90 
 
 97 
 95 
 
 9» 
 68 
 
 97 
 82 
 
 83 
 
 34 
 
 5? 
 48 
 36 
 
 47 
 35 
 56 
 84 
 43 
 78 
 62 
 
 65 
 64 
 
 39 
 
 57 
 
 4+ 
 
ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 
 
 103 
 
 Pre-volant des Ifles Mulgraves Oceanic 
 Pump, The Litde 
 
 Reinier, dit Zeeman, Peintre et Eau-fortier, k 
 
 Rue de Chantres, Paris 
 
 Rue des Toiles, Eourges, La . 
 
 Rue Pirouette-aux-Halles 
 
 Rue des Mauvais-Gargons, The 
 
 Sainte Face, La 
 
 Salle des Pas Perdus, The 
 
 San Francifco 
 
 Seine and the Angle de Mail, The River 
 
 Sheep and the Flies, The 
 
 Shepherd, A 
 
 Sinope, Plan du Combat de 
 
 Soldier, A 
 
 South-fea Fifhers 
 
 Stryge, Le . 
 
 St. Etienne-du-Mont 
 
 Three Pigs before a Stable, The 
 Tom beau de Molicre, Le 
 Tour de I'Horloge, La . 
 Tourelle, Rue de la Tix^randerie 
 Tourelle, Rue de I'Ecole de Medecine 22 
 Trials for Engraving in Relief 
 Two Horfes, The 
 
 Paris 
 
 Veflel from Haarlem to Amfterdam 
 
 Vi^te, Fran9ois 
 
 Voyage de la Corvette • Le Rhin,' Greniers, &c 
 
 „ „ „ Grand cafe, &c. 
 
 Voyage du * Rhin '..... 
 
 83 
 63 
 
 5* 
 
 75 
 76 
 43 
 59 
 
 34 
 38 
 4« 
 35 
 34 
 34 
 40 
 
 34 
 36 
 
 55 
 61 
 
 34 
 71 
 60 
 61 
 
 74 
 86 
 
 34 
 
 36 
 
 97 
 80 
 81 
 81 
 
 Water- Mill near Saint Denis, A 
 
 35 
 
5l5umetical Jntiejc of OBtcbmgs. 
 
 I. 
 
 2. 
 
 3- 
 
 4- 
 
 5- 
 6. 
 
 7- 
 8. 
 
 9- 
 
 lO, 
 
 II. 
 
 12. 
 
 13- 
 
 >4- 
 
 15- 
 1 6. 
 
 17- 
 1 8. 
 19. 
 20. 
 21. 
 22. 
 
 23- 
 
 24. 
 
 25- 
 26. 
 
 27- 
 
 28. 
 29. 
 30. 
 
 La Saintc Face 
 
 The Ox and the Afs 
 
 A Soldier 
 
 A Shepherd . 
 
 The Sheep and the Flies 
 
 The Three Pigs before a Stable 
 
 The Two Horfes . 
 
 The Pavilion of Mademoifelle and a part of the Louvre 
 
 Entrance nf the Faubourg de Saint Marceaux 
 
 A Water-Mill near Saint Denis 
 
 The River Seine and the Angle de Mail . 
 
 The Galliot of Jean de Vyl of Rotterdam . 
 
 A Veflel from Haarlem at Amfterdam 
 
 South-Sea Fifhers . . . . . 
 
 PalTage Boats from Calais to Flufhing 
 
 Entree du Couvent des Capucins fran^ais a Athcnes 
 
 The Salle des Pas Perdus 
 
 Chenonceau ..... 
 
 Le Pont Neuf et le Samaritaine 
 
 Le Pont au Change vers 1784 . 
 
 Plan du Combat de Sinope 
 
 San Francifco ..... 
 
 View of the Ruins of the Chateau Pierrefonds 
 Rue Pirouette-aux-Halles 
 
 Prefentation to King Louis XI. of the work, 
 .\'!axime ...... 
 
 Chevet de Saint Martin-fur-Renelle . 
 
 PafTerelle du Pont au Change . 
 
 Partie de la Cite de Paris, vers le fin du XVIP 
 
 Le Grand Chatelet a Paris 
 
 Vue de I'ancien Louvre . ' . . . 
 
 Fa/ere 
 
 Siecle 
 
 33 
 33 
 
 34 
 34 
 34 
 34 
 34 
 35 
 35 
 35 
 35 
 36 
 36 
 
 l(> 
 36 
 37 
 38 
 39 
 
 39 
 
 40 
 
 40 
 
 4» 
 43 
 43 
 
 44 
 45 
 
 47 
 48 
 
 49 
 50 
 
NUMERICAL INDEX. 
 
 105 
 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 31- 
 
 Eaux-fortes fur Paris ...... 
 
 50 
 
 32. 
 
 A Reinier, dit 2^eman, Peintre et Eau-fortier . 
 
 5» 
 
 33- 
 
 Old Gateway of the Palais de Juftice 
 
 5* 
 
 34- 
 
 Verfes on the Old Gateway , . •. 
 
 53 
 
 35- 
 
 Arms fymbolical of the City of Paris 
 
 54 
 
 36. 
 
 Fluftuat nee mergitur 
 
 54 
 
 37- 
 
 Le Stryge ........ 
 
 55 
 
 38. 
 
 Le Petit Pont 
 
 56 
 
 39- 
 
 L'Arche du Pont Notre Dame 
 
 57 
 
 40. 
 
 La Galerie de Notre Dame 
 
 58 
 
 41. 
 
 The Rue des Mauvais-Gar^ons . . . . 
 
 59 
 
 42. 
 
 La Tour de I'Horloge ...... 
 
 60 
 
 43- 
 
 Tourelle, Rue de la Tixdranderie 
 
 61 
 
 44- 
 
 Saint Etienne-du-Mont 
 
 61 
 
 45- 
 
 La Pompe Notre Dame 
 
 
 62 
 
 46. 
 
 The Little Pump . 
 
 
 63 
 
 47. 
 
 Le Pont-Neuf 
 
 
 64 
 
 48. 
 
 Le Pont au Change 
 
 
 65 
 
 49- 
 
 L'Efperance . 
 
 
 67 
 
 50. 
 
 La Morgue, 1850 . 
 
 
 68 
 
 51- 
 
 L'Hotellerie de la Mort 
 
 
 . 69 
 
 52. 
 
 L'Abfide de Notre Dame de Paris 
 
 70 
 
 53. 
 
 Le Tombeau de Moliere 
 
 7< 
 
 54- 
 
 Ellampes anciennes, Rochoux .... 
 
 73 
 
 55- 
 
 Tourelle, Rue de I'Ecole de M(fdecine 22, Paris . 
 
 74 
 
 56. 
 
 Rue de Chantres, Paris ..... 
 
 75 
 
 57. 
 
 Carved Doorway to an old Houfe at Bourges 
 
 75 
 
 58. 
 
 La Rue des Toiles, Bourges .... 
 
 76 
 
 59- 
 
 Ancienne Habitation a Bourges 
 
 77 
 
 60. 
 
 Le Pilote de Tonga ..... 
 
 78 
 
 61. 
 
 Le Malingue cryptogame .... 
 
 79 
 
 62. 
 
 Head of a New Holland Dog .... 
 
 80 
 
 ez. 
 
 Voyage de la Corvette 'Le Rhin.' Greniers, &c. 
 
 80 
 
 64. 
 
 „ „ „ Grand cafe, &c. 
 
 81 
 
 65. 
 
 Voyage du * Rhin ' — Hots ^ Urea 
 
 81 
 
 66. 
 
 Nouvelle Zdlande — Pointe dite des Charbonniers 
 
 82 
 
 67. 
 
 Diverf s Pieces gravees, &c 
 
 82 
 
 68. 
 
 Nouvelle Zdlande — Etat de la petite colonic fran9aife 
 
 • 83 
 
 69. 
 
 Prd- volant des lies Mulgraves Oceanic 
 
 83 
 
 70. 
 
 Petit Prince Dito 
 
 84 
 
 7'- 
 
 A Monfieur Eugene Bl^ry .... 
 
 84 
 
 72. 
 
 La Loi Lunaire ...... 
 
 85 
 
 73. 
 
 „ „ (fmall plj 
 
 ite) .... 
 
 . 85 
 
io6 
 
 NUMERICAL INDEX. 
 
 
 
 PACK 
 
 74- 
 
 La Loi Solaire ....... 
 
 86 
 
 75 
 
 & 76, Trials for Engraving in Relief . . . . 
 
 86 
 
 77- 
 
 Ci-gtt la Vendetta Surannee . . . . . 
 
 87 
 
 78. 
 
 Beranger ne fut veritablement fort . . . . 
 
 87 
 
 79- 
 
 Defign for a Frame ...... 
 
 88 
 
 80. 
 
 Frontifpiece for a Catalogue of the Works of the En- 
 
 
 
 graver, Thomas de Leu .... 
 
 89 
 
 81. 
 
 Vue de I'ancien Louvre du C6t^ de la Seine en 1 651 
 
 90 
 
 82. 
 
 Le Miniftcre de la Marine .... 
 
 9» 
 
 83. 
 
 Colle'ge Henri IV 
 
 91 
 
 84. 
 
 Bain froid, Chevrier, dit de TEcole . 
 
 94 
 
 85- 
 
 Portrait of Meryon 
 
 95 
 
 86. 
 
 „ Mons. Decourtive .... 
 
 95 
 
 87. 
 
 „ M. Eugene Bldry .... 
 
 . 96 
 
 88. 
 
 „ M. Cafimir Lecomte 
 
 . 96 
 
 89. 
 
 Evarifte Boulay-Paty 
 
 . 96 
 
 90. 
 
 Francois Viete ...... 
 
 97 
 
 91. 
 
 Pierre Nivelle '...... 
 
 97 
 
 92. 
 
 Teodore Agrippa d'Aubign^ .... 
 
 . 98 
 
 93- 
 
 Jean Befley ....... 
 
 ■ 98 
 
 94- 
 
 Rend de Burdigale ...... 
 
 99 
 
 95- 
 
 Portrait of the Printer, Armand Gueraud . 
 
 99 
 
 96. 
 
 Louis Jacques Maria Bizeul .... 
 
 100 
 
 97- 
 
 Benjamin Fillon 
 
 100 
 
 LONDON : 
 Pfintrd by Strangeways & Sons, Tower Street, St. Martin's Lane, 
 
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