Charles MERYON: Le Stryge - 1853
SOLD
Etching, 172 x 130 mm. Delteil 23 ; Schneiderman 27, 6th state of 10.
Impression of the 6th state (of 10), the two lines of verses erased in the lower margin but before reworks and addition of the title LE STRYGE. With the thin diagonals across Meryon's monogram and the traces of burnishing in the lower margin, which disappear in the later copies.
Very fine impression on laid watermarked paper (coat of arms). A few very slight handling folds. Full margins (sheet: 493 x 325 mm).
A superb landscape of the roofs of Paris and the Tour Saint-Jacques, from the point of view of one of the gargoyles on Notre-Dame.
Meryon explains the choice of subject matter in a letter to his father, dated April 16, 1854 (quoted by Schneiderman): “Regarding my engraving of the “Notre-Dame Lookout”, I would answer that this view is taken from above the higher part of the gallery by the same name. The monster that I represented does exist, and is in no way a work of imagination. It seemed to me that this figure was a personification of Lust.” In 1863 he adds in “My observations on the article in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts”: “I first named this piece The Lookout, I think that its present title [The Strix] suits better.”