?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
CHARLES MERYON Le Pont-au-Change.
Etching with drypoint on thin cream laid paper collé on smooth cream wove paper support, 1854. 155x335 mm; 61/8x131/4 inches, wide (full ?) margins. Schneiderman's fifth or sixth state (of 12) or an undescribed state between the fifth and sixth states (of 12), with the inscription added in cursive lower margin and with the short vertical scratch in the sky upper center but before any of the additional drypoint on the figures on the bridge and the houses beyond the bridge. The vice mark in the upper right corner of the plate still printing slightly. With partially erased inscriptions regarding the state (incorrectly described as "première état") in pencil on the support sheet, lower center.
Meryon (1821-1868) matched Rembrandt in his practice of reworking his etchings, sometimes intermittently over a period of 10 years, occasionally producing drastically altered compositions from the same plate. The current work underwent no fewer than 4 major changes, revolving around the images above the bridge at left.
As Schneiderman explains, a narrative unfolds in the progression of this print which reveals Meryon's mental instability (he battled depression throughout his life and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital). "In states II-VII Hope, represented by the frail balloon Esperanza, is carried on the winds towards the Palais de Justice. However, she is too late for the person in the hearse (on the bridge to the left). In states VIII-X large birds replace the balloon, similar to those in Le Stryge and La Galerie Notre-Dame (see lots 330 and 332 respectively), which seem to come from the Palais de Justice. Ominous and menacing, these birds portend evil occurrences. Although a calm returns to the scene in the XI and XII states, this print gives evidence of Meryon's fears," (Schneiderman, The Catalogue Raisonné of the Prints of Charles Meryon, London, 1990, p. 82). Meryon was first admitted to Charenton, a hospital for psychiatric patients, in 1858. Though he spent less than a year there, he was re-admitted to Charenton in 1866 and died of exhaustion and starvation in 1868.
A superb impression of this scarce, early state. Schneiderman lists only 50 impressions altogether of states 5 and 6 in public collections and we find only another 3 impressions at auction during the past 20 years. Schneiderman 40.
