MERYON, Charles

Charles Meryon ‘La Tour de l’Horloge.’ (The Clock Tower). Fifth State of Ten, 1852

Description

Charles Meryon etching with engraving titled La Tour de l’Horloge. (The Clock Tower). Fifth state of ten, printed in 1852.  From the collection of R.J.A.Vroom, Dutch collector, with his monogram stamped on the verso of the print. The print collectors stamp can be seen as a slight blemish on the front of the image, see photograph; attached to a window mount along top edge;  otherwise a fine and unusually clear impression on nineteenth century watermarked laid paper in very good clean condition. An impression prior to the large edition published by L’Artiste,  [1858].

Plate size 261 x 185mm

Sheet size 380 x 295mm

‘

Item details

Reference: Schneiderman 23.v/x; Delteil-Wright 28.v/x :  Both catalogued as Fifth state of ten. 1852.

Provenance: 

Robin Garton. (Not in the Catalogue 37, 1987, Charles Meryon Eaux-Fortes Sur Paris as the description does not match as being from Vroom collection)

Robin Garton listing: ‘The print was formally in the collection of  R.J.A.Vroom of Helmond, Holland 1928-90  stamp verso. Vrooms collection of Meryon prints was given to the Rijksprentenkabinet Museum, Amsterdam, and forms the basis of their considerable collection. This impression has been set aside earlier as a duplicate. ‘

‘Designed for Charles Meryon’s influential series of etchings entitled ‘Eaux-fortes sur Paris’, La Tour de l’Horloge shows the imposing clock tower which once stood on Rue Montagne in Paris, just before it was demolished in 1851. Charles Meryon made his preparatory sketches for this etching whilst the demolition work was in progress and etched this plate in 1852. Some demolition workers can be seen atop the scaffold which has been erected in front of the building; beyond them, other workers have already removed a considerable section of roof, allowing daylight to stream through the main building and out of the front windows in two pronounced rays of light.

Charles Meryon was obsessed with early architecture, which he regarded as possessed with the spirits of the past. He conceived his series of ‘Eaux-fortes sur Paris’, as a means of preserving the great buildings which were being demolished in Paris at that time, through his etched depictions.‘ Quote from ‘campbell-fine-art.com’