Charles Meryon (sometimes Méryon,"Méryon" was common in 19th-century sources (but never for his father), but is now not usual, even in French 23 November 1821 – 14 February 1868) was a French artist who worked almost entirely in etching, as he had colour blindness. Although now little-known in the English-speaking world, he is generally recognised as the most significant etcher of 19th century France. His most famous works are a series of views powerfully conveying his distinctive Gothic vision of Paris. He also had mental illness, dying in an asylum.
Meryon's mother was a dancer at the Paris Opera, who moved to London around 1814 to dance there. In 1818 she had a daughter by Viscount Lowther, the future William Lowther, 2nd Earl of Lonsdale, a wealthy aristocrat and politician, and 1821 Charles Meryon by Dr Charles Lewis Meryon, an English doctor, returning to Paris for the birth, and remaining there for the rest of her life. The household in Paris was supported financially by both fathers, but more so by Lowther, whose indirect funding remained important throughout Meryon's life; he made very little money from his art.
Starting at the age of 16, Meryon spent ten years as a naval cadet and finally officer, which included tours of the Mediterranean, and a four year voyage around the world, for most of it based in New Zealand, where the French then maintained an imperial toe-hold. On his return he fought and was wounded in a pro-government militia during political disturbances in 1848.
He had become seriously interested in art during his naval career, starting to take lessons. He gradually and reluctantly realized that his colour-blindness ruled out painting, and by 1848 settled on etching, then out of favour as a medium for fine art, though about to undergo a considerable revival. His best period lasted between 1850 and about 1856, before his increasing mental illness reduced his output. He spent fourteen months in an asylum in 1858 and 1859, then continued to work until 1866, when he re-entered the asylum for the final time.
Birth and childhood Meryon's mother, Pierre-Narcisse Chaspoux, was a Parisian, born in 1791, who became a dancer in the Paris Opera in 1807 with the stage name of Narcisse Gentil. Her appearances there stop in 1814, and it was presumably about this time that she moved to London, where she became the mistress of Viscount Lowther, the future William Lowther, 2nd Earl of Lonsdale, then an unmarried Tory MP, junior minister, and friend of the Prince Regent. She had a daughter Frances (Fanny) by him in 1818. She was also friendly with Dr Charles Lewis Meryon, who had been a fellow boarder at 10 Warwick Street, Charing Cross, off Cockspur Street, around 1818. In 1821, when she was appearing as a dancer at the London Opera, Pierre-Narcisse became pregnant by Meryon, and returned to Paris with Fanny, Dr Meryon having left for Florence. Charles Meryon was born in the rue Rameau, round the corner from the then site of the Opera.Collins, 1–6
His father, Dr Meryon, had been working at St Thomas' Hospital at this time, but had spent the years 1810 to 1817 in the Middle East as (at that point unqualified) doctor to the aristocratic traveller Lady Hester Stanhope, who he was later to visit in Lebanon three times, seeing her for the last time in 1838.Collins, 5–9 He continued to correspond with Pierre-Narcisse, and pay maintenance for his son, probably of 600 francs a year. The letters became increasingly uncomfortable, and she only found out about his marriage, which had been in 1823, by accident in 1831.Collins, 7–11 Equally, Pierre-Narcisse was rather more generously supported by Lowther, who saw her and Fanny when he was in Paris, but she was keen to keep him unaware of the existence of Charles, although the two fathers were acquaintances in London. Both fathers apparently continued to know her under her stage name of "Narcisse Gentil".Collins, 8, 16
Charles was registered at birth as a "Chaspoux", and eventually (in 1829) baptised in the Church of England by the chaplain of the British Embassy in Paris. In 1824 his father legally acknowledged paternity, and he was re-registered as "Meryon", although apparently usually known as "Gentil" as a child.Collins, 14–15 For over a year after his birth he lived with friends of his mother some 20 kilometres outside Paris, visited not very frequently by his mother, sister and grandmother. He could walk at 9 months. He was moved back to Paris in January 1823, and from late 1825 Fanny was at a boarding school.Collins, 14–17
By late in 1826 he had entered the "Pension Savary", one of a number of small boarding schools in the Paris suburb of Passy; Camille Pissarro was a pupil some years later. He remained there until 1836, apart from a period with his father in 1834–35, and it seems to have been a generally happy time in his life.Collins, 17–18 In 1834 his father, with his wife and children, was living in Marseille, where Charles joined them for an extended visit in May 1834; he had previously seen him on a few occasions. They spent the winter in north Italy, reaching as far as Florence; Charles was back in Paris by May 1835. Although in most respects he enjoyed the visit, and had happy memories of it, it appears that "the relationships within the family were not explained" to Charles, and perhaps other members, and this, the last time he would see his father, contributed to a growing resentment Charles felt towards him.Collins, 18–21
Meryon's mother died in October 1838, when he was already in the French Naval School in Brest in Brittany.Collins, 23–24 After this his half-sister Fanny went to live in England, where she married in 1840. She remained in touch with him for the rest of his life. He had his grandmother still in Paris, until her death in 1845, and various cousins and family friends in and around Paris.Collins, 31, 89
In the Navy Training Meryon later said that he first became attracted to a naval career by "the animation of the quays of Marseilles", on his visit to his father, and from his letters to his father it is clear this had become a clear intention by the end of 1835.Collins, 22 He entered the Naval school in Brest in November 1837, having come 47th in the competitive entry exam, out of 68 candidates who passed.Collins, p. 22
By the end of his first half-year he was ranked 15th, then 19th six months later. By September 1839 he was 11th out of 60 remaining in his class. He "consistently scored a near-perfect mark in Drawing", did well in English (after greatly improving this when with his father) and Gunnery. The training in drawing covered not only making charts and sketches of coastlines, important skills for naval officers, but "picturesque and linear" drawing of heads and landscapes.Collins, p. 29
The school for future naval officers had only been founded in 1827. It was based on the ship Orion and the course lasted two years. The pupils almost never set foot on shore, and Meryon's claim to have not done so for 22 months seems plausible. The routine and discipline were harsh, but Meryon made life-long friends, including Ernest Mouchez.Collins, pp. 28–30
Meryon joined his first ship, the Alger at Toulon in October 1839, as a cadet, second class. Initially he lodged onshore.Collins, 32 After a trip to Algiers carrying troops, the ship left Toulon to join the French Levant squadron in the Aegean Sea in February 1840, allowing Meryon to visit Athens, Corinth, Argos, Melos and Mycenae.Collins, 34 In April 1840 he transferred to the Montebello near modern İzmir (then Smyrna) in Turkey,Collins, 35 with which he revisited Greece, then France, before visiting Tunis, then of great political interest to the French, and Carthage. In January 1842 he was promoted to cadet, first class.Collins, pp. 36–37
Voyage around the world
In the corvette "Le Rhin" he made a voyage round the world from 1842 to September 1846. The purpose of the voyage was to promote French interests in New Zealand, which the French government was not yet ready to accept as wholly a British territory; there were also French whaling interests to protect. A small French settlement on the South Island had been established on an earlier voyage. The French naval "New Zealand station" was to end while the Rhin was returning home, when the replacement ship, the Seine, was wrecked on the coast of New Caledonia.Collins, 40, 50–52
The French base in New Zealand was Akaroa, or Port Louis-Philippe as the French still called it, then a small whaling-station, with a mostly French population. The Rhin reached it on 18 January 1843, and was replaced in April 1846.Collins, 40 The outward voyage began on 15 August 1842, heading across the Atlantic, passing Tenerife, but not landing until Bahia in Brazil was reached in October, where they spent nearly two weeks. They then changed direction, rounding the Cape of Good Hope, and arriving at Hobart, Tasmania in late December,Collins, 43–46 staying only a week, before sailing for Akaroa, which they reached on 11 January 1843.Collins, 50
Relations between the French and British populations, and even their officials, were cordial or friendly, despite the British tightening their control over this period, for example restricting the fishing rights allowed to French boats. But both sides were aware the question of French claims would be settled back in Europe.Collins, 49–52, 61, 72–74 In May and June 1843 the Rhin visited Wellington for ten days, then Auckland.Collins, 53–56 In October they set off for Australia, via Kororareka near the tip of the North Island, today Russell, New Zealand, where they stayed until early November. Less than 18 months later the so-called Flagstaff War between the British and Māori was to break out there.Collins, 57–58 In November Meryon was, back in Paris, promoted to ensign, the lowest rank of naval officer, although the news did not reach him on the Rhin until July the next year.Collins, 67
At the end of August 1844 the Rhin sailed for Valparaíso in Chile "to buy stores, particularly wine, which was very expensive in Sydney".Collins, 67 After staying two weeks they set off on the return voyage on 6 November 1844, stopping at the Marquesas and Tahiti, which had just come under French "protection", and where there were a total of seven French naval ships at that point. The Rhin reached Akaroa again on 8 February 1845, hoping to find that its replacement ship had arrived, and they could return to France. But the ship had not come, and in March tensions between the Maori and Europeans had sharply increased, increasing the warmth of local Franco-British relations.Collins, 72–74
The replacement ship Seine finally arrived on 8 March 1846, and the Rhin set sail for home on the 16th. They passed Cape Horn in early May, and landed at Saint Helena on 14 June, staying a week. Meryon's visit to Napoleon's final home would come to haunt him in later years. After a brief stop at Ascension Island, they passed into the Mediterranean and spent four days at the French North African port of Mers El-Kebir from 18 August. They finally landed at Toulon on 28 August, four years and 13 days after they left it.Collins, 85–86
Art during his naval career Meryon had sketched in Athens, Algiers and other exotic places he had visited, and by late 1840 decided to take lessons in drawing from the Toulon artist Vincent Courdouan, who was then 30.Collins, 37–38 He had thought of painting in watercolour, but decided he did not have time to learn this at first, but studied using sepia washes. He took full watercolour up in November 1841, when a letter to his father is the first documented mention of his colour-blindness; possibly he had not realized he had the condition before. At this time he seems to have hoped the condition would improve. Courdouan's style made much use of strong contrasts of light and dark tones, which is also characteristic of Meryon's art in the 1850s.Collins, 38, 104