Charles Meryon's etching portrays Evariste Boulay Paty, a 19th century French poet, with precise linear detail characteristic of the artist's masterful printmaking technique. The work demonstrates Meryon's skill in capturing both the physical likeness and intellectual character of his subject through carefully controlled etching lines. As a portrait executed in this demanding medium, it exemplifies the high regard in which Meryon held the art of etching as a means of both documentation and artistic expression.