Portrait of Charles Meryon on his sick bed.

Léopold Flameng (1831-1913) was born in Brussels, though his parents were French.  His first artistic studies were with Luigi Calamatta and Jean Gigoux. His skill as engraver was noticed by Charles Blanc and his collaboration in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts with fellow engraver Léon Gaucherel helped ensure the publication's reputation. He eventually provided one hundred illustrations. He was a medallist at the Paris Exposition Universelle (1878) and was elected a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1898 .

Known for his etchings of works by Jan van Eyck, Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, Ingres and Delacroix, he illustrated several books on Paris and numerous literary works of classical and contemporary authors, including Boccaccio, Paul Scarron, Victor Hugo and Francois Coppée.

The subject of this print is scarcely less interesting than the artist. Charles Meryon (1821-1868) is one of the greatest French printmakers of his century, and unique among them had visited New Zealand as a naval draftsman in the early 1840s. Here, though, this sensitive and neurotic artist is depicted at one of the low moments of his life. Bearded and unkempt, with messy, long hair, seated upright on his sick bed, Meryon is resting forward on his right arm, and stares bleakly and blankly into space. A plaid blanket is over his legs and bed, with its simple, metal-bar head and end, and the blank walls, indicate his poverty and desperation. Indeed, dealer James Goodfriend describes it as 'clearly the most powerful portrait of the mad Meryon'. The reproduction of Flameng's 'original drawing  by heliogravure is aesthetically satisfying, and the only form other than the drawing in which the image exists'. The portrait 'was drawn at Meryon's home. The next morning he was taken to the insane asylum at Charenton'. He was documented as 'suffering from melancholy madness, complicated by delusion'. He stayed at Charenton for just over a year, but ultimately wished to return there, doing so in 1866. Less than 18 months later, aged 46, Meryon died of exhaustion and self-inflicted starvation, believing he was Christ, captured by the Pharisees.

See: 

MIA, https://collections.artsmia.org/art/47222/charles-meryon-leopold-flameng

Wikipedia, 'Leopold Flament', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9opold_Flameng

Dr Mark Stocker   Curator, Historical International Art   April 2018