Le malingre cryptogame (The Sickly Cryptogam)
1860
Medium
etching on laid paper
Dimensions
plate: 7.1 × 5.9 cm (2 13/16 × 2 5/16 in.) sheet: 14.1 × 12.2 cm (5 9/16 × 4 13/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1943.3.6152
Art Historical Context
Charles Meryon, a pioneering French etcher of the mid-19th century (1–1868), is celebrated for his hauntingly precise views of Paris, blending Romantic realism with emerging Symbolist tendencies. Created in 1860, *Le malingre cryptame (The Sicklyogam)* marks a departure from his famed urban landscapes, evoking a fragile, otherworldly botanical subject—a "cryptogam" referring to non-flowering plants ferns or mosses, sickly or puny ("maling"). This intimate etching, with its diminutive plate size of just 7.1 × 5.9 cm, invites close contemplation, hinting at Meryon's personal struggles with menta...
About the Artist
Charles Meryon · 1821–1868
Charles Meryon, born on November 23, 1821, in Paris, was the illegitimate son of English physician Dr. Charles Lewis Meryon and dancer Pierre-Narcisse Chaspoux (stage name Narcisse Gentil) at the Paris Opéra. His half-sister Fanny, from his mother's prior relationship with Viscount Lowther, remained in contact after their mother's death in 1838. Raised partly outside Paris before attending Pension...