Le Ministère de la Marine (The Admiralty, Paris)

Meryon’s print of the Ministry of the Navy appears at first to be a rather pedestrian view of a French government institution, but the intrusion of an aerial attack of marine phantasmagoria signals a different intent altogether. Drawing upon the sketches he made as a young man while serving as a midshipman on a mission to the French colonies in Oceania, Meryon enlivens this composition with a bizarre fantastical element that defies a coherent interpretation. Despite receiving positive critical attention earlier in his career, Meryon began to suffer from depression and delusional visions, which he later incorporated as arcane imagery into his views of Paris. His increasingly unstable mental condition resulted in his confinement to an asylum, where he died.