Luc Olivier Merson

For the 1889 edition of Victor Hugo's 1831 novel Notre-Dame de Paris, published by A Ferroud, Paris, Merson produced a set of full-page illustrations, head- and tail-pieces which were etched by Adolphe-Alphonse Géry-Bichard. The beloved tale recounts the history of the disfigured orphan Quasimodo who was taken in and raised by the archdeacon at Notre Dame in Paris. The novel's popularity created an abiding interest in Gothic architecture and the history--and mysteries--of the cathedral.
Merson worked intensively on his vignettes, executing initial studies in pen and ink and often working them up into elaborate, full-scale wash drawings. Here, Quasimodo, the hunchback bell ringer of Notre Dame, is flogged while tied to a pillory as punishment for attempting to kidnap the Romani girl Esmeralda and attacking the King's archers. The torturer Pierre Torterue administers his sentence--to be whipped and stretched out on a wooden wheel-like contraption for two hours before a crowd in the Place de Grève. Quasimodo silently receives his punishment.