thumb|200px|Antonin Mercié <br /> sketched by [[Ramon Casas (MNAC)]]

Marius Jean Antonin Mercié (October 30, 1845 in Toulouse – December 12, 1916 in Paris) was a French sculptor, medallist and painter.

Biography

thumb|left|150px|Antonin Mercié in 1916

Mercié entered the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, and studied under Alexandre Falguière and François Jouffroy, and in 1868 gained the Grand Prix de Rome at age 23. His first great popular successes were the David and Gloria Victis. The latter bronze was shown and received the Medal of Honour of the Paris Salon and was subsequently placed in the Square Montholon.

The bronze David was one of his most popular works. The Biblical hero is depicted naked with the head of Goliath at his feet like Donatello's David, but with a turbanned head and sheathing his long sword. Numerous reproductions exist, most of which incorporate a loincloth that covers David's genitalia but not his buttocks. The lifesize original is in the Musée d'Orsay.

Mercié was appointed Professor of Drawing and Sculpture at the École des Beaux-Arts, and was elected a member of the Académie française in 1891, after being awarded the biennial prize of the Institute of 800 in 1887. He died in Paris on December 12, 1916.

Works

225px|thumb|Genius of Arts, [[Louvre, Paris]]

225px|thumb|Monument to [[Paul-Jacques-Aimé Baudry|Paul Baudry, Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris]]

The Genius of the Arts (1877), a relief, is in the Tuileries, in substitution for Antoine-Louis Barye's Napoleon III. A similar work for the tomb of Jules Michelet (1879; designed with architect Jean-Louis Pascal) is in Père Lachaise Cemetery, and in the same year Mercié produced the statue of Arago with accompanying reliefs, now erected at Perpignan. and the 1911 Francis Scott Key Monument in Baltimore, Maryland.

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File:Mercie-gloria-victis new.jpg|Gloria Victis

File:1890 Lee statue unveiling.jpg|Unveiling of the Equestrian Statue of Robert E. Lee, May 29, 1890. Richmond, Virginia

File:Statue Robert E. Lee Richmond.JPG|Lee statue, unveiled

File:General Lafayette Statue (Washington, D.C.) - DSC01016.JPG|Statue of the Marquis de Lafayette, Lafayette Square, Washington, D.C., 1891

File:Key 5643438604 2072b935c8 o.jpg|Francis Scott Key Monument, circa 1907–1910

File:Augustins - David by Antonin Mercié (D 2005 1).jpg|David, 1870

File:EB1911 Plate VIII. v24, pg.509, Fig 6.jpg|Le Souvenir, 1885, for the tomb of Mme Charles Ferry

File:David vainqueur de Goliath by Antonin Mercié.jpg|David vainqueur de Goliath, circa 1894-1910

</gallery>

See also

  • List of works by Antonin Mercié

References

Further reading

  • DuPriest Jr., James E. and Douglas O. Tice, Jr. Monument & Boulevard:Richmond's Grand Avenues, A Richmond Discoveries Publication, Richmond, Virginia, 1996
  • Goode, James M. The Outdoor Sculpture of Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C. 1974
  • Mackay, James, The Dictionary of Sculptors in Bronze, Antique Collectors Club, Woodbridge, Suffolk 1977
  • Rusk, William Sener, Art in Baltimore: Monuments and Memorials, The Norman Remington Company, baltimore, 1924
  • Smithsonian biography
  • Art Renewal Center
  • Insecula (French language): index to pages on selected works (it may be necessary to close an advertising window to view this page)
  • Webshots: a visitor photo of Mercié's David