The Clock Tower

The Clock Tower

Charles Meryon

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Meryon was the first nineteenth-century French etcher to make the Parisian cityscape his primary focus. This is one of several preparatory drawings that he made for an etching of the same title, as part of his suite of twenty-two prints entitled "Eaux-fortes sur Paris" (Etchings on Paris). With a precise graphite line, Meryon recorded the main architectural features of the Palais de Justice with its clock tower as well as the Conciergerie behind; both buildings are part of the complex of law courts at the center of Paris. He omitted anecdotal details, but the inscription at the top of the sheet describes the barge that later appeared in the etching.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.