Gevel van de Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois.
Martin Monnickendam was a Dutch artist whose work caught my attention not for his paintings but for this series of etchings showing views of the streets and older buildings of Paris. The Rijksmuseum gives the series a date of 1896, when the artist was a mere 22 years of age but already working with a proficiency that makes me wish he’d done more in this style. Monnickendam’s subject and medium brings to mind Charles Méryon’s celebrated etchings of Paris but Méryon’s depictions of Notre-Dame and elsewhere generally place the buildings at a distance. Monnickendam fills his plates with closer views of architectural detail, showing how good the etching medium can be in capturing Gothic crenellations. All of which is of particular interest to me now that I’m working again on The Dunwich Horror. Lovecraft’s story doesn’t feature any specifically Gothic architecture but the detailed shading I’ve been doing is closer to etching than anything else.
Gezicht op de Saint-Gervais.
Impasse des Boeufs.
Marché des Carmes.
Notre-Dame van Moret-sur-Loing .
Notre-Dame van Parijs.
Passage Saint-Paul.
Place des Vosges.
Pont Neuf.
Saint Nicolas du Chardonnet.
Saint-Étienne-du-Mont.
Straatgezicht met het Hôtel de Sens.
Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The etching and engraving archive
Previously on { feuilleton }
• Marville’s streets
• Atget’s corners
• Charles Méryon revisited
These are really reminiscent of photographs by the Séeberger brothers, now on display in Amsterdam at Huis Marseille. In particular the Impasse des Boeufs one, unfortunately not on their website. https://huismarseille.nl/en/exhibitions/revoir-paris/
Thanks, Thom, I think I’d seen the Séebergers’ photos of the Paris flood of 1910 but not any of their other works. The etchings also remind me of the photos of Paris by Marville and Atget.