Charles Meryon

The Petit Pont

1850 · etching with engraving · Sheet: 26.4 x 19.6 cm (10 3/8 x 7 11/16 in.); Image: 24.6 x 18.8 cm (9 11/16 x 7 3/8 in.)

The Petit Pont, Meryon, 1850
Cleveland Museum of Art

Meryon, The Petit Pont, 1850. etching with engraving.

The Cleveland Museum of Art · John L. Severance Fund

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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3 studies of this work

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