TriArte - La Morgue

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Bookmark: http://triarte.brynmawr.edu/objects-1/info/179475

Charles Meryon
French (1821 - 1868) Primary

La Morgue

1854

State: 4th state

Plate
9 1/2 in. x 8 1/2 in. (24.13 cm x 21.59 cm)

Bryn Mawr College

Accession Number: 1935.8

Deanery.229 (Deanery Number)

Geography:

Europe, France

Classification:

Fine and Visual Arts; Prints; Etchings

Culture/Nationality: French

Collection: Deanery Collection

Charles Meryon (1821-1868) was born in Paris, the son of a travelling English physician and a dancer at a Parisian opera house. After spending a few years in the French navy, he returned to Paris and began painting lessons. Meryon was born color-blind, however, a condition which disrupted his painting career and led him to study etching at the studio of Alexandre Bléry.

Meryon also suffered from mental illness throughout his life. His familiarity with poverty and melancholy shaped his artistic vision, and over the course of four years (1850-1854) he produced a series of twenty-two haunting and imaginative views of the streets, buildings, and bridges of Paris called "Eaux-fortes sur Paris."

In the majority of his etchings, Meryon treats human figures as subsidiary elements in the urban landscape. The figures in "La Morgue," however, relate a narrative: a body recently dredged from the river is taken to the city mortuary, as spectators watch from the wall. The scene takes place in an architectural setting depicted with characteristic clarity and imagination. This print hung in the Blue Room of the Deanery along with other prints from the same series and etchings of the American artist, James McNeill Whistler.

Keywords Click a term to view the records with the same keyword

This object has the following keywords:

drypoint*, etchings*

drypoint - Intaglio process in which a sharp needle scratches the plate creating a burr that yields a characteristically soft and velvety line in the final print.
etchings - Prints made from an etched printing plate, which is a metal plate on which a design is made by coating the plate with an acid-resistant substance, creating a design in the coating, and then exposing the plate to acid, which etches the plate where the metal is exposed. For designs incised directly into a copper plate using a burin or graver, use "engravings (prints)."

Bibliography List

The following Bibliography exist for this object:

Manufacturers' Appraisal Company, 1949 Manufacturers' Appraisal. 1949
Page Number: 67
Manufacturers' Appraisal Company, 1954 Manufacturers' Appraisal. 1954
Page Number: 92

Portfolio List Click a portfolio name to view all the objects in that portfolio

This object is a member of the following portfolios:

Deanery Collection

If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=BMC>cite web |url=http://triarte.brynmawr.edu/objects-1/info/179475 |title=La Morgue |author=Bryn Mawr College Library Special Collections |accessdate=1/26/2021 |publisher=Bryn Mawr College</ref>

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