Etchings of Paris; Title page to the suite. Artist: Charles Meryon (French, 1821-1868). Dimensions: plate: 6 1/2 x 4 15/16 in. (16.5 x 12.5 cm). Series/Portfolio: Etchings of Paris. Date: 1852.Charles Meryon was celebrated among artists and collectors alike during the nineteenth century for his etched depictions of Paris. These works combined a documentary eye on the French capital--which was then undergoing dramatic transformation from a medieval to distinctly modern city--with fantastic details that varied from the whimsical to the morbid. His first and best-known album, Eaux-fortes sur Paris, included twenty-two urban views inspired by the novels and poetry of Victor Hugo (1802-1885). This title page opened the series, and showed, as the art critic Philippe Burty described in his early monograph on Meryon, "a block of stone with fossils and moss imprints . symbolizing the physical foundations of Paris.". Museum: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA.