A winged creature—half eagle, half dragon—emerges in a pale blue medallion at the heart of Esquisse pour l'escalier des Fêtes de l'Hôtel de Ville de Paris, Verseau. The beast’s serpentine neck and outstretched wings conjure a sense of watchfulness, while the soft modeling of its form makes it feel both mythical and strangely gentle. The creature is encircled by a garland of tiny pink blossoms, which seem to buffer the fantastic from the everyday, and the eye is drawn outward to a border of golden leaves, each vein carefully rendered, as if the natural world is quietly encroaching on the realm of legend.

In the corners, pears hang from leafy branches, their roundness and ripeness echoing the medallion’s curve, while two crests—one bearing a trident, the other a delicate spray—hint at allegorical meaning, perhaps referencing water and abundance. The palette is restrained, with creamy grounds and muted greens, lending the whole design a sense of calm order and quiet richness. Created between 1888 and 1898, this work belongs to a period when grand civic buildings in Paris were being adorned with allegorical and decorative schemes, often commissioned to celebrate the city’s rebirth and optimism after the upheavals of the previous decades. Luc-Olivier Merson was among the artists called upon to create these visual narratives, blending symbolism, myth, and the decorative arts.

The Hôtel de Ville’s ceremonial staircase would have demanded such a design—one that could be read both as ornament and as a story about civic identity, nature, and myth. Though history has kept few traces of this particular sketch’s journey, its careful balance of fantasy and botanical detail invites us to imagine the ambitions of a city eager to define itself through art. Let your eye linger on the blue medallion, and consider what stories a single mythical beast might have told to generations passing beneath it.