CHARLES MERYON.

Otago Witness, Issue 2812, 5 February 1908, Page 77

CHARLES MERYON.

—A Gteat-'Etcbqr.— Born in 1821, Meryon yfks one of twiL children of an English doctor and a Parisian dancer. Left with his mother and grandmother, he lived a life of much privation and died in middle-age in a madhouse. His father paid for his education and procured him admission into the French -navy, the more ■aristocratic^ of the two services, -where he rose to be a 'lieutenant. During his career in the navy he went on a voyage ■round the' world, and in New Zealand made drawings of eoenery which, though insignificant compared with his later work, showed the precision which afterwards enabled him to build up, rather than draw, the etchings of his loved Paris. , i But a compelling' Toice made him .learo the navy and devote "himself to ari.^ Ho found himself colour-blind, and entered the studio of' an engraVer, where he was employed on monotonous copying work. Leaving his master in 1850 he began a work' profoundly personal, an echo of none and the precursor of none. The years about 1850 marked the beginning of the revival of etching, which had decline*! since the great days of Rembrandt, i Vandycfe*. and Claude. Haden had etched befjro 1650, and Whistler was shortly to reveal ia aid' Thames etohings those char- 1 aoteristics of the river to" which the world wa3 utterly blind. >• The leader icf the movement was Bracquemond, with the oopyisb etchers Flameng and Rajon. The men of geniu3 were Haden and Whistler, Jacquemsurt, Meryon, and Xiegros. " Jacquemarf, with his keenness of Vision and exactitude of band, was born to render the wondera created by the hands of artistio men in rock-crystal, porcelain, gold, and porphyry. Meryon, with a hand as delicate, had an imagination wider and deeper. While Jasquemart ,felt^ the romance of lighti colour, and • texture, Meryon was stirred by human.' interest and by tragedy. '. In addition Jo' the structure, of buildings, ; hereccided the memories and the associa- '• tiona of the life of the oity which had been taught him by, his own experience. . Like moafc gieat efcKers, he printed hia own proofs. - , His great -work was Bone between 1850 and 1854-, when he was already a t master, and' before any; signs of decay appeared. ■ His gifts of sentiment and execution intricately combined gave unity to his' work.' He was poet and chronicler, separated 1 from all topographers by his passion and mystery. Hollar's London was quaint, precise, dead' ; • Meryon's Paris a record of passion, and experience

Town-bred, Meryon's only landscape con- . sisted of slowly running water and grey skies. His mastery of light and shade was shown in the prints of r 'St. Etienne dv ' Mont" and of the "Rue de la Tisseran- ' derie." The Parisians of his day were not' alive to the poetry and technical skill of his etchings. He had the encouragement; only of, a few-'artiete and *ne or two pritic3 ' like Baudelaire. With no relief in domestic life, his mind gave way, and 1 he died ia the asylum at Oharenton in 1868. Years afterwards " an admirer, wishing to know something of his later days, found that he was remembered only as the writer of numbers of incoherent memorials. Since then, Bq*ne of us have done our best. — "Frederick Meryon."