Notes et Souvenirs sur Charles Méryon

Charles Méryon (1821 –1868) was a French artist and poet who worked almost entirely in etching, as he suffered from colour blindness. Although now little-known in the English-speaking world, he is generally recognized as the most significant etcher of 19th century France. He wrote in verses which were designed to be published alongside his images, expressing the thoughts and feelings the subjects aroused in his mind, and considered himself a poet. His most famous work is a series of views of Paris, a series of etchings called "Eaux-fortes sur Paris." He lived in poverty, suffered from mental illness and hallucinations, and was committed to the Charenton mental institution at Saint-Maurice. Despite the support of Felix Bracquemond and the admiration of such figures as Baudelaire, Gautier, and Victor Hugo, he recovered briefly but then went into a decline, died, and was buried in the Cemetery of Charenton. This book (whose title translates to Notes and Remembrances on Charles Meryon, his Tomb at the Cemetery of Charenton Saint Maurice) is a testimony to his writing, work, and art, and the tomb designed in the cemetery, which sadly is bare of ornament or markings now.