Galerie Paul Prouté

Originally a sailor, it was not until later in life that Charles Meryon devoted himself to art, and in particular (and indeed exclusively, which was rare at the time) to the art of engraving. A pupil of Eugène Bléry and influenced by the 17th-century Dutch engraver Reinier Nooms, known as Zeeman, Meryon produced (in addition to the preparatory drawings) around a hundred etchings. Most of these depictions of old Paris—always masterful and deliberately picturesque, if not fantastical (such as Le Ministère de la Marine)—met with great success amongst both the old Romantics and the new Realists (Hugo, Baudelaire). The creator of the famous prints of the Petit Pont, La Morgue, La Galerie Notre-Dame and L’Abside, Meryon died in extreme poverty and suffering from severe mental illness.