Hugues Merle

Hugues Merle studied at Beaux-Arts de Paris. Elizabeth Jane Gardner is recorded as having studied under Hugues Merle. The recorded working language is French. The field of work recorded is painting. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are portrait. Places of work recorded in the authority are Paris. Works named in the authority record are A beggar woman and Shepherdess with dog in the Alps. Work by Hugues Merle is recorded in the collections of Auckland Art Gallery, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Amsterdam Museum, Clark Art Institute and Walters Art Museum. Distinctions recorded are Knight of the Legion of Honour.

• Name — Hugues Merle • Born — 28 April 1822 • Birthplace — La Sône, France • Died — 1881 • Place of death — Paris, France • Field — Painting • Children — Georges Merle

Hugues Merle was born in 1822 in La Sône. He studied painting with Léon Cogniet. Merle started exhibiting at the Salon (Paris) in 1847. He received second class prizes in 1861 and 1863. In 1866 he was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. Hugues Merle became a friend of Paul Durand-Ruel in the early 1860s. Durand-Ruel had started buying paintings by Merle in 1862 and introduced the artist to painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau. Merle was later often compared to Bouguereau and “became a considerable rival of Bouguereau in subject and treatment”. In the mid-1860s, Merle painted several portraits of Paul Durand-Ruel, his wife, and their son, John. Hugues Merle died in 1881 in Paris. His son Georges Merle also became a painter.

• Illustration — Maternal Affection • Illustration — Tristan and Isolde • Illustration — The Storyteller • Illustration — Maternal Love • Illustration — Thoughts of the Future • Illustration — Romeo and Juliet • Illustration — L'abandonnée, 1872 • Illustration — Les Orphelines • Illustration — Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, 1879 • Illustration — Mother and Child, c. 1869. Clark Art Institute • Illustration — The Forgotten • Illustration — Esther • Illustration — The Scarlet Letter, 1861