Etchings of Paris: The Little Bridge (1850): Art, History and Details

Etchings of Paris: The Little Bridge (1850) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Charles Meryon (French, 1821–1868).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Although Meryon made the first study for this scene with a camera lucida (an apparatus containing a prism or an arrangement of mirrors that reflects the image on a surface so that its outlines may be traced), the artist then made changes to improve the composition—extending the height of the towers of Notre-Dame, for instance. Meryon did not mean his plates to have the precision of a photograph. Rather, he combined two views—a sketch from a low point at the water's edge and a view from the parapet—which, although not totally accurate, are believable. Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867) reported in a letter that he discussed this print with the artist who claimed "that the shadow cast by a portion of the stonework on the side wall of the Pont Neuf looked exactly like the profile of a sphinx; that this was entirely coincidence on his part and only later did he take note of this peculiarity."

Object facts

• Title: Etchings of Paris: The Little Bridge
• Date: 1850
• Creator attribution: Charles Meryon (French, 1821–1868)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Print
• Technique: etching and engraving
• Dimensions: Sheet: 36.7 x 26.9 cm (14 7/16 x 10 9/16 in.); Platemark: 26 x 18.7 cm (10 1/4 x 7 3/8 in.)
• Collection: PR - Etching
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1954.881

Collection credit

The Milton Curtiss Rose Collection in memory of Evelyn Curtiss Rose

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.