Collection
 |
Charles Meryon
(France 1821–1868)
- Title
- The vampire
- Alternative title:
- Le stryge
- Year
- 1853
- Media category
- Materials used
- etching
- Edition
- iv of 8 states
- Dimensions
-
17.0 x 12.8cm platemark; 29.4 x 21.3cm sheet
- Signature & date
- Signed and dated l.l., [incised plate, date printed in reverse] "C.Meryon ... / IIILCCDM". Signed l.l. and l.r., [incised plate] "C.M.".
- Credit
- Purchased 1940
- Accession number
- 7009
- Location
- Not on display
- Further information
The etching shows one of the stone gargoyles projecting from a tower of Notre-Dame Cathedral. A flock of ravens circle in the air. The image was almost certainly inspired by Victor Hugo’s evocation of the medieval city in ‘Notre-Dame de Paris’ (1831), in which the writer describes a bird’s eye view from the cathedral towers. Meryon’s inscription at the base of the print proclaims:
‘The insatiable vampire, eternal lust
Forever coveting its food in the great city’.- Bibliography (6)
-
Nicholas Draffin (Curator), The bitten image: European etchings from the collection 1980, Domain, 1980, 11. no catalogue numbers
Geoffrey Holme (Editor), The etchings of Charles Meryon, London, 1921, 10, (illus.). plate no. 6
Renée Porter, Meryon, Bracquemond & the 19th Century Etching Renaissance 1998, Domain, 1998, (illus.). no catalogue numbers
Malcolm C Salaman, The Master: Charles Meryon, London, 1927, 2, 4, (illus.). plate no.1
Richard Schneiderman, The catalogue raisonné of the prints of Charles Meryon, London, 1990, 56, 57 (illus.), 58 (illus.), 59 (illus.), 60 (illus.). cat.no. 20. Illustration on pg. 34 is the first state; illustration on pg. 35 is the fourth state; illustration on pg. 36 is the sixth state; illustration on pg. 37 is the seventh state.
Hugh Stokes (Editor), The master etchers: Charles Meryon, London, (illus.). plate no. 13
- Exhibition history (3)
-
The Bitten Image: European etchings from the collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 19 Jul 1980–14 Sep 1980
Meryon, Bracquemond & the 19th Century etching Renaissance, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 18 Jun 1998–02 Aug 1998
Printmaking in the age of Romanticism, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 06 Aug 2009–25 Oct 2009
