id: 166638 accession number: 2008.359 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2008.359 updated: 2020-11-04 22:03:14.870000 Notre-Dame de Paris, c. 1881. Luc-Olivier Merson (French, 1846-1920). Pen and black ink, brush and gray wash, black and white gouache, and graphite; sheet: 32.6 x 21.7 cm (12 13/16 x 8 9/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Muriel Butkin 2008.359 title: Notre-Dame de Paris title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1881 creation date earliest: 1876 creation date latest: 1886 current location: creditline: Bequest of Muriel Butkin copyright: --- culture: France, 19th century technique: pen and black ink, brush and gray wash, black and white gouache, and graphite department: Drawings collection: Drawings type: Drawing find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Luc-Olivier Merson (French, 1846-1920) - artist --- measurements: Sheet: 32.6 x 21.7 cm (12 13/16 x 8 9/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: description: light brown wove paper (a multi-ply board) watermarks: inscriptions: inscription: signed, lower right, in black ink: Luc Olivier Merson; verso, lower center, in graphite: [S Fauti?] J [Dumoni?] 4; lower center, in graphite: [torchon?] / [illegible] Bristol blanc style ancien; lower center, in graphite: 56 - 42 Cadre translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin opening date: 2001-08-26T00:00:00 French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (August 26-October 28, 2001); Dahesh Museum of Art (February 19-May 18, 2002). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * --- PROVENANCE (sale, Hôtel Georges V, Paris, June 25, 1975, no. 106) date: 1975 footnotes: * As Les Tours de Notre-Dame. citations: (sale, Parke-Bernet, New York, May 14, 1976, no. 263, sold to Muriel Butkin, Shaker Heights, OH) date: 1976 footnotes: * As Gargoyles and Ravens. citations: Muriel Butkin [1916-2008], Shaker Heights, OH, by bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1976-2008 footnotes: citations: Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 2008- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: After creating this drawing, Luc-Olivier Merson went on to illustrate an important 1889 edition of Notre-Dame de Paris, one of the major projects of his career. digital description: Victor Hugo's celebrated 1831 novel Notre-Dame de Paris tells the story of Quasimodo, a disfigured orphan raised by the archdeacon of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. Hugo's novel became an important influence on many artists and helped to define a poetic view of the medieval period and of Gothic architecture that lasted well into the second half of the century. This drawing by Luc-Olivier Merson was reproduced as a wood engraving in an illustrated tribute to Hugo published in 1881. wall description: Victor Hugo's celebrated 1831 novel Notre-Dame de Paris tells the story of the grotesque and deformed Quasimodo, an orphan raised by Claude Frollo, the archdeacon of the church of Notre Dame in Paris. Hugo's novel became an important influence on many artists and helped to define a poetic view of the medieval period and of Gothic architecture that lasted well into the second half of the century. The sheet's imagery brings to mind a passage from the text: "The transept belfry and the two towers were to him three great cages, the birds in which, taught by him, would sing for him alone." --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Foster, Carter E., Sylvain Bellenger, and Patrick Shaw Cable. French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. page number: Mentioned: pp. 122-23, 143-44, no. 56; Reproduced: p. 123 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2008.359/2008.359_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2008.359/2008.359_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2008.359/2008.359_full.tif