Page:The Etchings of Charles Meryon.djvu/32

 drawing of the ruins of Pierrefonds brought to him by the architect, Viollet le Duc. It was during this time that Delâtre had impressions of some of his plates published by L'Artiste. On the 25th August, 1859, Meryon was released on leave for three weeks, and did not actually go back to the asylum until 1866.

OTHER ETCHINGS OF THE 'FIFTIES

The Paris set had almost entirely absorbed his energies during the years of its production, but he made one or two other good etchings during the same period. Two of the Bourges etchings belong to this time, the third being much later. The only etching of 1851 was Porte d'un ancien Couvent, Bourges (plate 39), a lightly etched plate, parts of which were only drawn in outline. Meryon printed very few copies of it, and intended to complete it later, but it is a very beautiful piece of work in its present condition. Meryon projected the publication of a Bourges set, but it always remained in abeyance. Two draughts exist in his handwriting, dated 1852, for the lettering of a title page to such a set, and M. Delteil prints a letter addressed by him in 1854 to the Ministry of the Interior, in which he sends a proof of the first plate etched of the proposed Bourges set (meaning, no doubt, Rue des Toiles, Bourges) and begs for a subscription for fifty copies of a set of ten etchings at fifteen francs a set. The set was to consist of four etchings of the same dimensions as the specimen submitted and six etchings of details of buildings. The etchings were to represent private houses, which were in more danger of demolition than public monuments. He sent Porte d'un ancien Couvent (plate 39) as a specimen of the less important etchings that he projected. In the same letter he recalls that the Ministry had subscribed for fifty copies of the Paris set, which had been originally intended to consist of ten etchings (he counts only the important subjects which ultimately received numbers); he had now decided to add two more (La Morgue and L'Abside) and begged the Minister to subscribe