Charles Meryon

Etchings of Paris: Molière's Tomb in Père Lachaise Cemetery

1854 · etching

Etchings of Paris:  Molière's Tomb in Père Lachaise Cemetery, Meryon, 1854
Cleveland Museum of Art

Meryon, Etchings of Paris: Molière's Tomb in Père Lachaise Cemetery, 1854. etching.

The Cleveland Museum of Art · The Milton Curtiss Rose Collection in memory of Evelyn Curtiss Rose

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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