The vampire
(Le Stryge)
1853
from the Etchings of Paris (Eaux-Fortes sur Paris) series (1852–54)
Medium
etching
Measurements
17.2 × 13.0 cm (plate) 24.8 × 19.4 cm (sheet)
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of Jacobus Francis van Breda and Helen Mary Cooley through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program, 2024
Gallery location
Not on display
About this work
The vampire, which depicts a stone gargoyle from Paris’s Notre-Dame cathedral against an aerial view of the city, is one of Meryon’s most famous etchings. The sinister atmosphere of the print, which is enhanced by the wheeling black crows, is underscored by Meryon’s addition of two lines of verse in the fourth state: ‘The insatiable vampire, eternal lust / Forever coveting its food in the great city’. Meryon had a tumultuous life and spent periods of time in care for mental instability. The dark, Gothic tenor of many of his prints has been read in the context of his biography.
Artwork Details
Catalogue/s Raisonné
Schneiderman 27 VI
Edition
6th of 10 states
Accession Number
2024.693
Departments
International Prints / International Prints and Drawings