Tourelle de la rue de la Tixeranderie.
1852
Medium
Etching on paper
Dimensions
Plate: 26.4 × 14.7 cm (10 7/16 × 5 13/16 in.); Sheet: 28 × 17.3 cm (11 1/16 × 6 13/16 in.)
Classification
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
94624
Art Historical Context
Nestled in the heart of Paris's historic Marais district, *Tourelle de la rue la Tixeranderie* (1852) by Charles Meryon captures the turret of a medieval building on a narrow, winding street. This etching showcases Meryon's masterful eye for the city's vanishing architectural gems, rendered with exquisite precision on a modest plate measuring 26.4 × 14.7 cm. As a pioneering 19th-century printmaker, Meryon documented old Paris just before Baron Haussmann's sweeping transformed the urban landscape, preserving these Gothic details in intricate lines and shadowy depths. Etching, Meryon's preferre...
About the Artist
Charles Meryon · 1821–1868
Charles Meryon, born on November 23, 1821, in Paris, was the illegitimate son of English physician Dr. Charles Lewis Meryon and dancer Pierre-Narcisse Chaspoux (stage name Narcisse Gentil) at the Paris Opéra. His half-sister Fanny, from his mother's prior relationship with Viscount Lowther, remained in contact after their mother's death in 1838. Raised partly outside Paris before attending Pension...