Meryon (1821-1868) was a French artist who worked in Paris and is considered among the most significant and influential printmakers of the 19th century. He suffered from color blindness and devoted his practice almost entirely to etching. Meryon's series of 22 etchings Eaux-fortes sur Paris, to which the current work belongs, captured many Parisian landmarks and early neighborhoods before their destruction or refurbishment in the wake of Napoleon III's and Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann's 1850s-60s rebuilding of Paris.
