Paintings Drawings Sculptures 2016 - Jean Luc Baroni

Luc-Olivier Merson
Nantes 1846 - 1920 Paris
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Portait of the Artist’s Sister, Marie-Thérèse Merson
Oil on canvas, bears an inscription on the back of the canvas : Ce tableau n’a pas été signé.
Il est de Luc Olivier Merson Académicien Prix de Rome frère de ma marraine Marie Thérèse Merson
demeurant à Ker Oméga Préfailles. Mme René Juret née Nicole Gangloff 1
27 x 21.5 cm (10 ½ x 8 ¼ in.)
Provenance: Marie-Thérèse Merson (1863-1945), Préfailles; Nicole Juret née Gangloff (1908-2010),
La Bernerie en Retz; thence by descent.
Born into a bourgeois family in Nantes (Brittany),
Luc-Olivier Merson went to Paris to study at the École
des Beaux-Arts under Lecoq de Boisbaudran and
Chassevent, both highly Academic painters. He was
also influenced by the theories on art of his father,
the art critic, Charles-Olivier Merson (1822-1902),
who was a virulent defender of the classical tradition
in religious painting. Merson began exhibiting at the
Salon in 1867 and won the prestigious Prix de Rome
in 1869 with his painting Soldat du Marathon.
While at the Villa Medici in Rome, he was especially
fascinated with Raphael’s art as well as the fresco
painting of the Quattrocento. His first successful works
were both mystical and poetic, in light, fresh colours
over very accomplished and meticulous drawing,
such as Le Loup de Gubbio (Salon of 1878, Musée de
Lille), le Repos en Egypte (Salon of 1879, Musée de
Nice), as well as Saint François prêche aux poissons
(Salon of 1881, Musée de Nantes).
In the 1890s, Merson forsook the Italian landscapes he
loved so much for those of his native Brittany where
he would stay several weeks every year in his family
house at Cruaudais. In 1888, he visited Cancale and
Préfailles where his mother and sister lived as well as
Pornic. In 1891 he stayed in Belle-Île and travelled
along the whole coastline. In 1896, he rented Fransic
Manor between Morlaix and Carantec where he spent
his time sketching and painting.
Marie-Thérèse Merson (1863-1945) was his only and
much younger sister (born in 1863) who spent her life
looking after her mother, Joséphine Félicité Merson,
born Talbot, (1824-1913) and remained in their house
Ker Omega in Préfailles.
Luc Olivier Merson also painted large decorative
commissions in Paris, for example for the Palais de
Justice in 1877, the Rector’s office at the Sorbonne,
the main staircase at the Opéra Comique and finally
in 1889, the Grand staircase and the cupolas of the
antichambers of the newly rebuilt Paris Hôtel de Ville.
In 1906, Merson designed a suite of tapestries on the
theme of the Contes de Perrault. He also illustrated all
the best known writers of the time such as Victor Hugo,
Flaubert, Mérimée and Alfred de Musset. And finally,
he designed banknotes for the Banque de France as
well as postage stamps.
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