The Notre-Dame Pump, Paris

1852
Not on view
The demolition of the water pump on the Notre-Dame bridge, ordered by the Paris municipal government in 1851, encouraged Meryon to select the old structure as a subject for his etching the following year. As part of the plan instituted by Emperor Napoleon III to improve city infrastructure, the water supply system was overhauled, rendering this seventeenth-century pump defunct. Meryon wrote in 1853 of his regret for its destruction, because the pump had been an "unusual and curious thing" in a city that was becoming "more and more regular."

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Notre-Dame Pump, Paris
  • Series/Portfolio: Etchings of Paris
  • Artist: Charles Meryon (French, 1821–1868)
  • Date: 1852
  • Medium: Etching; sixth state of ten
  • Dimensions: plate: 6 3/4 x 9 15/16 in. (17.2 x 25.2 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: H.O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929
  • Object Number: 29.107.105
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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