L’Abside de Notre-Dame de Paris (The Apse of Notre Dame, Paris), from Eaux-fortes sur Paris

Charles Méryon, a champion of the Etching Revival in France, achieved renown with his series of 22 “Etchings of Paris” (Eaux-fortes sur Paris). Created when Georges-Eugène Haussmann had just started demolishing parts of medieval Paris in the name of modernization, these etchings memorialize the city’s past at a moment when aspects of it were already fading in popular memory. The scene shown here is the last in the series and one of its most successful prints. In keeping with Méryon’s unconventional approach to his subjects, the artist focuses not on Notre Dame’s considerably more famous west facade, but on the cathedral’s apsidal elevation from the east. A group of figures with a cart in the foreground offer a lively counterpoint to the building’s imposing Gothic structure.