Charles MERYON

The vampire
(Le Stryge)
1853
from the Etchings of Paris (Eaux-Fortes sur Paris) series (1852–54)

Medium

etching

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
Reproduction requests

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

Medium

etching

Measurements

17.2 × 13.0 cm (plate) 24.8 × 19.4 cm (sheet)

Catalogue/s Raisonné

Schneiderman 27 VI

Edition

6th of 10 states

Accession Number

2024.693

Departments

International Prints / International Prints and Drawings

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

Reproduction requests

Gallery location

Not on display

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Charles MERYON The vampire (Le Stryge) 1853 from the Etchings of Paris (Eaux-Fortes sur Paris) series (1852–54)

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Charles MERYON

The vampire
(Le Stryge)
1853
from the Etchings of Paris (Eaux-Fortes sur Paris) series (1852–54)