Charles Meryon

Etchings of Paris: The Gargoyle

1853 · etching

Etchings of Paris:  The Gargoyle, Meryon, 1853
Cleveland Museum of Art

Meryon, Etchings of Paris: The Gargoyle, 1853. etching.

The Cleveland Museum of Art · Twenty-fifth anniversary gift of Grover Higgins

How to look at a Meryon

  • Half-close your eyes until the lines vanish. Count the values that remain. Then open them and count the layers that made each one.
  • Follow the eye level across the Apse print: the bridge, the quay and the figures all confirm it.
  • Find the one place where the deepest black touches untouched paper. That is the focal point.

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1 study of this work

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