Hugues Merle (French, 1823 - 1881)
The Lunatic of Étretat, c. 1871
Oil on canvas
60 1/8 x 39 1/8 in. (152.7 x 99.4 cm)
Chrysler Museum of Art
The woman’s face is a mask of suffering while she cradles, not a sleeping baby, but a wooden log! The figure’s anguish is a hallmark of Romanticism, a style that emphasized images of suffering, madness, and death. These images were often thinly veiled allusions to broader social suffering or political upheavals. Merle painted The Lunatic in 1871, the same year that France lost the Franco-Prussian War. Could his dark image mirror the broader national mood of political loss and desolation? More on this painting
Hugues Merle (1823 - 1881) was a well-known painter during the middle decades of the nineteenth century when academic realism and naturalism held center stage in the Parisian art world. His work was acclaimed and eagerly sought out by patrons both in Europe and the United States. His greatest popular successes were won by scenes of maternal affection and childhood innocence.”
Hugues Merle
MATERNAL AFFECTION
oil on canvas
Private collection
Hugues Merle* (French, 1823-1881)
The Grandparents' Visit, c. 1861
Oil on canvas
31¾ x 39 3/8in. (80.6 x 100cm.)
Private collection
Hugues Merle
Thoughts of the Future, c. 1864
Oil on canvas
40 x 30 in. 101.6 x 76.2 cm.
Private collection
Hugues MERLE La Sône, 1823 - Paris, 1881
La Nuit et le Jour, c. 1876
Allegory of Night and Day,
Oil on canvas
h: 185 w: 211 cm
Private collection
This painting, produced in 1876 and exhibited at the Salon of the same year, falls into the category of so-called mature works by our artist
The visual effect is prodigious, making this painting a superb example of French academic painting of the second half of the century, by one of its most brilliant promoters. together an owl in flight, a bird largely imbued with symbols, and renowned for its insight in the dark. Day, for its part, imposes itself in Apollo, holding the reins of a quadriga launched at high speed, as if propelled by the light of the sun which precedes a rainbow composed of the signs of the zodiac. More on this painting
In approximately 1843, he turned up in Paris as an art student studying in the private atelier of Léon Cogniet (1794-1880). The primary ingredient of Cogniet was an emphasis on the importance of sketching rapidly to develop a composition. The resulting paintings typically possessed a sense of immediacy that would have been foreign in the more deliberative images of neoclassicism.
Hugues Merle (French, 1822–1881)
The Temptation of Saint Antoine , c. 1846
Oil on canvas
57.2 x 43.5 cm. (22.5 x 17.1 in.)
Private collection
Saint Anthony or Antony (c. 251–356) was a Christian monk from Egypt, revered since his death as a saint. He is known as the Father of All Monks. His feast day is celebrated on January 17 among the Orthodox and Catholic churches and on Tobi 22 in the Egyptian calendar used by the Coptic Church.
The biography of Anthony's life helped to spread the concept of Christian monasticism, particularly in Western Europe via its Latin translations. He is often erroneously considered the first Christian monk. Anthony was, however, the first to go into the wilderness (about ad 270), a geographical move that seems to have contributed to his renown. Accounts of Anthony enduring supernatural temptation during his sojourn in the Eastern Desert of Egypt inspired the often-repeated subject of the temptation of St. Anthony in Western art and literature.
Anthony is appealed to against infectious diseases, particularly skin diseases. In the past, many such afflictions, including ergotism, erysipelas, and shingles, were historically referred to as St. Anthony's fire. More on Saint Anthony
Hugues Merle
Mary Magdalene in the Cave, c. 1868
Oil on canvas
17-3/4 x 23-1/2 inches (45.1 x 59.7 cm)
Private collection
Mary Magdalene, literally translated as Mary the Magdalene or Mary of Magdala, is a figure in Christianity who, according to the Bible, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers. She is said to have witnessed Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection. Within the four Gospels she is named more than most of the apostles. Based on texts of the early Christian era in the third century, it seems that her status as an “apostle" rivals even Peter's.
The Gospel of Luke says seven demons had gone out of her. She is most prominent in the narrative of the crucifixion of Jesus, at which she was present. She was also present two days later when, she was, either alone or as a member of a group of women, the first to testify to the resurrection of Jesus. John 20 and Mark 16:9 specifically name her as the first person to see Jesus after his resurrection.
During the Middle Ages, Mary Magdalene was regarded in Western Christianity as a repentant prostitute or promiscuous woman, claims not found in any of the four canonical gospels. More Mary Magdalene
Hugues Merle, French, 1823 - 1881
QUEEN ESTHER , c. 1875
Oil on canvas laid down on masonite
25⅞ by 21½ in., 65.7 by 54.6 cm
Private collection
Esther is described in all versions of the Book of Esther as the Jewish queen of a Persian king Ahasuerus. In the narrative, Ahasuerus seeks a new wife after his queen, Vashti, refuses to obey him, and Esther is chosen for her beauty. The king's chief adviser, Haman, is offended by Esther's cousin and guardian, Mordecai, and gets permission from the king to have all the Jews in the kingdom killed. Esther foils the plan, and wins permission from the king for the Jews to kill their enemies, and they do so. Her story provides a traditional background for Purim, which is celebrated on the date given in the story for when Haman's order was to go into effect, which is the same day that the Jews killed their enemies after the plan was reversed.
This work appears to be related to a larger composition entitled Esther (1875) (See below). More on Esther
Hugues Merle
QUEEN ESTHER , Heroine of the faith, 1854
Oil on canvas
26 x 21.3/8 in. (66 x 54.3 cm.)
Private collection
Esther is flanked by King Ahasuerus and an attendant. Merle is recognized for his psychologically charged compositions, and Queen Esther is no exception. The difficulty of and anguish over her decision can be sensed in her eyes as she is likely about to break court etiquette and risk her life to plead for the Jewish people before her husband, the Persian king. Private collection
Hugues Merle
Susannah at her Bath, c. 1874
Oil on canvas
51¼ x 35½ in. (130.1 x 90.2 cm.)
Private collection
A fair Hebrew wife named Susanna was falsely accused by lecherous voyeurs. As she bathes in her garden, having sent her attendants away, two lustful elders secretly observe the lovely Susanna. When she makes her way back to her house, they accost her, threatening to claim that she was meeting a young man in the garden unless she agrees to have sex with them.
She refuses to be blackmailed and is arrested and about to be put to death for promiscuity when a young man named Daniel interrupts the proceedings, shouting that the elders should be questioned to prevent the death of an innocent. After being separated, the two men are questioned about details of what they saw, but disagree about the tree under which Susanna supposedly met her lover. In the Greek text, the names of the trees cited by the elders form puns with the sentence given by Daniel. The first says they were under a mastic, and Daniel says that an angel stands ready to cuthim in two. The second says they were under an evergreen oak tree, and Daniel says that an angel stands ready to saw him in two. The great difference in size between a mastic and an oak makes the elders' lie plain to all the observers. The false accusers are put to death, and virtue triumphs. More about Susanna
Hugues Merle
ABRAHAM BANISHING HAGAR AND ISHMAEL
oil on canvas
Private collection
Hagar is a biblical person in the Book of Genesis Chapter 16. She was an Egyptian handmaid of Sarah, who gave her to Abraham "to wife" to bear a child. The product of the union was Abraham's firstborn, Ishmael, the progenitor of the Ishmaelites.
After Sarah gave birth to Isaac, and the tension between the women returned. At a celebration after Isaac was weaned, Sarah found the teenage Ishmael mocking her son, and demanded that Abraham send Hagar and her son away. She declared that Ishmael would not share in Isaac's inheritance. Abraham was greatly distressed but God told Abraham to do as his wife commanded because God's promise would be carried out through both Isaac and Ishmael.
The name Hagar originates from the Book of Genesis, and is only alluded to in the Qur'an. She is considered Abraham's second wife in the Islamic faith and acknowledged in all Abrahamic faiths. In mainstream Christianity, she is considered a concubine to Abraham. More on Hagar
One year later, in 1847, Merle made his debut at the Salon with the painting Portrait de l’auteur just four years after beginning his studies with Cogniet. In 1848, he exhibited the Légende des Willis (See below), a Romantic rendition of the legend of the “willis”, the spectres of young women who died before their wedding days. In this canvas the exquisitely painted willis are fading back into the world of spirit as the sun rises above a lake, thus preventing them from carrying off the hero, Albrecht. The painting shows a clear debt to Cogniet, and more specifically to Guérin, in its idiosyncratic blend of classicism and romanticism.
Merle’s art education was interrupted on February 24, 1848 when revolution broke out in the streets of Paris. After eighteen years of the corrupt government under the “citizen king” Louis-Phillippe, democratic forces succeeded in overthrowing the monarchy and establishing the Second Republic. Many of the freedoms proclaimed during the French Revolution of 1789 were restored; and for the arts community of Paris, the occasionally oppressive power of the Salon juries and the École des Beaux-Arts was lightened.
In the headiness of the newly formed democratic government, Merle seems to have begun a more experimental phase in his own career. One of the paintings that expresses a new Realist aesthetic is a canvas showing the wine harvest near Saint-Marcellin. This work demonstrates that the painter visited his home town with some regularity, and also that he had been looking carefully at the work of Courbet and Jean-François Millet. Vendangeur dauphinois (See below). The subject of the wine harvest was not new, but Merle’s handling of it reflects the changing aesthetic of the times. Like Antigna and Tassaert, Merle has utilized his classical training to convey a more contemporary meaning.
The all too brief years of the Second Republic were also a time of personal change for Merle. In addition to developing his own unique style, he married and became a father. His son Georges, who later became a painter in his own right, was born in 1851. Merle also seems to have established himself as a portrait painter during this period, perhaps because it was a more secure means of making a living for his young family.
Life in Paris was far from calm, however, at the end of 1851 when Louis-Napoléon (nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte) staged a coup d’état on December 2 and proclaimed himself emperor. In spite of this setback for democracy, some of the revolutionary freedoms remained in place, including universal suffrage for men. For the artists of Paris, it meant a return to a more conservative Salon jury. In Merle’s work, this change is most evident in Heroine of the Faith, a painting from 1854 showing a female virgin Christian martyr being sentenced to death in ancient Rome.
Merle’s reputation as a portraitist and as a painter of literary genre scenes grew significantly during the 1850s. In 1855, his Salon submissions included three paintings based on literary sources, and in 1857, he exhibited two portraits and a painting of Napoleon Bonaparte’s victory in Grenoble in May 1815. It should be noted that Merle came from the region surrounding the city of Grenoble, so the subject of Napoleon’s victory there helped to identify him with the supporters of the new emperor’s uncle. With success in the marketplace, his financial position also improved.
As an increasingly successful and prominent painter, Merle began to attract the attention of serious art collectors. One of the earliest was Richard Seymour-Conway, 4th Marquess of Hertford (1800-1870) who purchased Reading the Bible (See below), one of Merle’s submissions to the 1859 Paris Salon. The scene consists of two appealing orphan girls being taught by a nun. Beneath the surface, however, lies one of the most controversial issues of mid-century France—the role of religion and education in the civic and political life of the nation. In 1859, this image was a political statement about the efficacy of religious orders not only in teaching, but also in providing care for destitute youth.
Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of "The Scarlet Letter" (1850), regarded this painting, which William Walters commissioned from Merle in 1859, as the finest illustration of his novel. Set in Puritan Boston, the novel relates how Hester Prynne was publicly disgraced and condemned to wear a scarlet letter "A" for adultery. Arthur Dimmesdale, the minister who fathered her child, and Roger Chillingworth, Hester's elderly husband, appear in the background. Merle's canvas reflects some of the same 19th-century historical interest in the Puritans as Hawthorne's book, a fascination that reached its peak with the establishment of Thanksgiving as a national holiday in 1863. By depicting Hester and her daughter, Pearl, in a pose that recalls that of the Madonna and Child, Merle underlines "The Scarlet Letter"'s themes of sin and redemption. More on this painting
The crystal tear tumbling from the wide eye and untamed hair of the young mother clasping her baby who is blissfully unaware of her anguish, easily communicates the drama of the scene, the work’s title understood when spying the wedding party departing a church in the distance. While the unwed mother may seem a very modern subject, the theme had been explored by Merle’s contemporaries. More on this painting
The later years of the 1860s Merle began to accept students in his atelier. Four years later, in 1872, Elisabeth Jane Gardner of New Hampshire also listed Merle as her mentor in the Salon catalogue; she received a gold medal for her painting, Cendrillon.
Le Rédempteur is clearly based on the renaissance model of the Virgin presenting the Christ child as the redeemer of humanity, but it this case, the Virgin looks downward, away from the viewer. The most radical element, however, is the figure of the Christ child, who is outlandishly out of proportion to his mother as he extends his hand in a gesture of blessing.
Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, T.O.S.F. ( 7 July 1207 – 17 November 1231), also known as Saint Elizabeth of Thuringia, was a princess of the Kingdom of Hungary, Landgravine of Thuringia, Germany, and a greatly venerated Catholic saint who was an early member of the Third Order of St. Francis, by which she is honored as its patroness. Elizabeth was married at the age of 14, and widowed at 20. After her husband's death she sent her children away and regained her dowry, using the money to build a hospital where she herself served the sick. She became a symbol of Christian charity after her death at the age of 24 and was quickly canonized. More on Saint Elizabeth of Hungary
Unusual, although in a completely different stylistic vocabulary, is the almost Byzantine image of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. Known as the patron saint of the poor and homeless, the saint is shown with solid golden halo positioned in front of tiny blue tiles that might well have been copied from a genuine icon in the Orthodox Christian tradition. The flatness of these elements makes the contrast with her idealized and carefully modeled face even more stark.
Hugues Merle, FRENCH, 1823 – 1881
LA LÉGENDE DES WILLIS, c. 1847
Oil on canvas
41 by 57 1/2 in., 104.1 by 146 cm.
Private collection
LA LÉGENDE DES WILLIS, c. 1847
Oil on canvas
41 by 57 1/2 in., 104.1 by 146 cm.
Private collection
“In a part of Austria there is a legend, of Slavic origin. It is the legend of the nocturnal dancer, known in Slavic countries as “willi”. The willis are fiancées who died before the wedding day, poor young girls who can not remain quiet in the grave. In their dead hearts, in their dead feet still remains that love of dance that they could not satisfy during their lives; at midnight, they rise, gather in troops on the highway, and, woe to the young man who meets them! He must dance with them; they embrace him with frantic desire, and he dances with them until he falls dead. Adorned with their wedding clothes, wreaths of flowers on their heads, elves . Their faces, though of snow-white, are beautiful in youth; they laugh with such frightful joy, they call you with such seduction, their air has so sweet promises! These dead bacchantes are irresistible. “ More on the legend
Merle’s art education was interrupted on February 24, 1848 when revolution broke out in the streets of Paris. After eighteen years of the corrupt government under the “citizen king” Louis-Phillippe, democratic forces succeeded in overthrowing the monarchy and establishing the Second Republic. Many of the freedoms proclaimed during the French Revolution of 1789 were restored; and for the arts community of Paris, the occasionally oppressive power of the Salon juries and the École des Beaux-Arts was lightened.
Hugues Merle, FRENCH, 1823 – 1881
BAIGNEUSE/ THE BATHER, c. 1870
Oil on canvas
45 7/8 by 32 1/8 in., 116.5 by 81.6 cm
Private collection
Merle depicts a beautiful wood nymph emerging from her bath; her fingers are entwined in her hair that still glistens with tiny drops of water from the pool below.
Hugues Merle, LA SÔNE 1823 - 1881 PARIS
HEBE DAY-DREAMING, c. 1880
Oil on canvas
162.5 x 83.5cm; 64 by 32 7/8 in
Private collection
Hebe in ancient Greek religion, is the goddess of youth. She is the daughter of Zeus and Hera. Hebe was the cupbearer for the gods and goddesses of Mount Olympus, serving their nectar and ambrosia, until she was married to Heracles (Roman equivalent: Hercules).
Hebe was supposed to have the power to give eternal youth, and in art is typically seen with her father in the guise of an eagle, often offering a cup to him. This depiction is seen in classical engraved gems as well as later art and seems to relate to a belief that the eagle (like the phoenix) had the ability to renew itself to a youthful state. More on Hebe
Hugues Merle (French, 1822–1881)
Vendangeurs dauphinois dans les environs de Saint-Marcellin , c. 1850–1850
Oil on Canvas
108 x 192 cm. (42.5 x 75.6 in.)
Private collection
The all too brief years of the Second Republic were also a time of personal change for Merle. In addition to developing his own unique style, he married and became a father. His son Georges, who later became a painter in his own right, was born in 1851. Merle also seems to have established himself as a portrait painter during this period, perhaps because it was a more secure means of making a living for his young family.
Hugues Merle
Enfants à la charette et au chien/ Children with cart and dog
Oil on canvas
22 x 35 cm
Private collection
Life in Paris was far from calm, however, at the end of 1851 when Louis-Napoléon (nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte) staged a coup d’état on December 2 and proclaimed himself emperor. In spite of this setback for democracy, some of the revolutionary freedoms remained in place, including universal suffrage for men. For the artists of Paris, it meant a return to a more conservative Salon jury. In Merle’s work, this change is most evident in Heroine of the Faith, a painting from 1854 showing a female virgin Christian martyr being sentenced to death in ancient Rome.
Merle, Hugues (1823-81)
The Eagle's Flight, c. 1857
Oil on canvas
Private Collection
As an increasingly successful and prominent painter, Merle began to attract the attention of serious art collectors. One of the earliest was Richard Seymour-Conway, 4th Marquess of Hertford (1800-1870) who purchased Reading the Bible (See below), one of Merle’s submissions to the 1859 Paris Salon. The scene consists of two appealing orphan girls being taught by a nun. Beneath the surface, however, lies one of the most controversial issues of mid-century France—the role of religion and education in the civic and political life of the nation. In 1859, this image was a political statement about the efficacy of religious orders not only in teaching, but also in providing care for destitute youth.
Hugues Merle
Reading the Bible
21.6 x 26.7 cm
Oil on canvas
Wallace Collection, London
Hugues Merle (1822–1881)
The Scarlet Letter, c. 1861
Oil on canvas
Height: 99.9 cm (39.3 in); Width: 81.1 cm (31.9 in)
Walters Art Museum
Hugues Merle
Une mendiante/ A beggar, c. 1861
Oil on canvas
H. 110.5; L. 81.0 cm.
Orsay museum, Paris, France
Hugues Merle, 1823 - 1881, FRENCH
THE FORGOTTEN
Oil on canvas
39 5/8 by 32 in., 100.6 by 81.3 cm
Private collection
The Forgotten depicts maternal affection and a mother's instinct to protect her children in the face of insurmountable hardship and unfortunate circumstances. Standing outside what appears to be an iron gate to a church yard, the young mother seems to be praying for relief, her eyes turned longingly upwards. The poor and outcast, who existed on the margins of society far removed from the rapid modernization and industrialization of cities, fascinated Realist painters in nineteenth century France. The rebuilding of Paris under Haussmann led to the uprooting and displacement of the working classes who could not afford skyrocketing rents. Poor women were hit the hardest by these urban changes, and by the 1850s, images of abandoned, single mothers and their children became prevalent on the art market. More on this painting
Hugues Merle, 1823 - 1881, FRENCH
L'ABANDONNÉE, c. 1872
Oil on canvas
25 1/2 by 20 in., 64.8 by 50.8 cm
Private collectionThe crystal tear tumbling from the wide eye and untamed hair of the young mother clasping her baby who is blissfully unaware of her anguish, easily communicates the drama of the scene, the work’s title understood when spying the wedding party departing a church in the distance. While the unwed mother may seem a very modern subject, the theme had been explored by Merle’s contemporaries. More on this painting
In the 1860s, Merle’s patronage expanded to include American collectors such as William Walters of Baltimore who commissioned The Scarlet Letter (See above), a painting based on the book by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Merle exhibited the composition at the 1861 Salon along with another canvas, Une mendiante. Both of these works display an awareness of the desperate situations in which many women found themselves. Likewise, a small watercolor from 1862, entitled The Good Sister, shows a ragged young girl, perhaps ten years old, cradling her baby sister in her arms as they sit on a rough stone step; an empty bowl with a spoon rest nearby.
In contrast, Merle also continued to produce more mainstream genre scenes such as The First Thorns of Knowledge, (1864) (See above). Here, a young mother attempts to teach her young son his ABCs, but he resists her efforts with a sulky face and unhappy expression. Merle seems to be both sympathetic to the son’s reluctance and wryly accepting of the need for learning one’s letters. It is a scene that parents everywhere would undoubtedly appreciate, and it proved to be a type of painting that was enormously popular.
Hugues Merle (1822–1881)
The First Thorns of Knowledge, c. 1864
Oil on canvas
Dallas Museum of Art
Hugues Merle (1822–1881)
The Embroidery Lesson
Oil on canvas
I have no further description, at this time
Hugues Merle
Madame Paul Durand-Ruel née Eva Lafon, c. 1865
113 x 81.5 cm
Oil on canvas
Archives Durand-Ruel
Hugues Merle
Paul Durand-Ruel, c. 1866
113 x 81.5 cm
Oil on canvas
Archives Durand-Ruel
By the 1860s, Merle was well established in his career. n 1866, he became a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. Perhaps even more significant to the development of his career was his friendship with Paul Durand-Ruel, whom he met in 1862, shortly after the art dealer’s marriage to Eva Lafon. The two men became lifelong friends and it was to Merle that Durand-Ruel turned for portraits of his wife and himself in the mid-1860s (See above).
Hugues Merle (French, Saint-Marcellin 1823–1881 Paris)
Falling Leaves, Allegory of Autumn, c. 1872
Oil on canvas
68 7/8 x 43 1/4 in. (174.9 x 109.9 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
In this painting from 1872, Merle tried his hand at a loosely mythological scene of a languid young woman in the guise of Fall.
Catharine Lorillard Wolfe bought the melancholic picture from the New York branch of the art gallery Goupil & Co. on February 21, 1873, while still in mourning for her father. A critic who saw the work in Wolfe’s home remarked, "Here, under russet foliage, a ripe beauty passes…. Nearby, disguised so much in shadow as to be almost invisible, little Love is running away; for this bereavement of affection is the plague of life’s Autumn, as love’s importunity is the plague of its Spring." More on this painting
The later years of the 1860s Merle began to accept students in his atelier. Four years later, in 1872, Elisabeth Jane Gardner of New Hampshire also listed Merle as her mentor in the Salon catalogue; she received a gold medal for her painting, Cendrillon.
Hugues Merle (1822–1881)
Le Rédempteur/ The Redeemer, c. 1879
Oil on canvas
160 × 90 cm (62.9 × 35.4 in)
Museum of Grenoble
Hugues Merle (1822–1881)
Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, c. 1879
Oil on canvas
Detroit Institute of Arts
Unusual, although in a completely different stylistic vocabulary, is the almost Byzantine image of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. Known as the patron saint of the poor and homeless, the saint is shown with solid golden halo positioned in front of tiny blue tiles that might well have been copied from a genuine icon in the Orthodox Christian tradition. The flatness of these elements makes the contrast with her idealized and carefully modeled face even more stark.
As the 1870s drew to a close, Merle’s work became ever more focused on religious imagery. In 1879 he exhibited Le Rédempteur (The Redeemer) at the Salon and also painted St. Elizabeth of Hungary (See above).
Merle exhibited at the Salon of 1880 and died the following year at age fifty-eight in Paris. More on Hugues Merle
Merle exhibited at the Salon of 1880 and died the following year at age fifty-eight in Paris. More on Hugues Merle
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