MERCIÉ Antonin (1845-1916)

Antonin Mercié entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and studied with Alexandre Falguière and François Jouffroy, and in 1868 won the Grand Prix de Rome at the age of 23. His first great popular successes are the David and Gloria Victis, which is exhibited and receives the medal of honor at the Paris Salon. The bronze was then placed in the Square Montholon in Paris. The bronze David was one of his most popular works. The life-size original is now in the Musée d'Orsay.

Appointed professor of drawing and sculpture at the École des Beaux-Arts, Mercié was elected a member of the French Academy in 1891, after receiving the biennial prize from the Institut des 800 in 1887. He was then elected Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor, and in 1913 became president of the Society of French Artists. Marie-Antoinette Demagnez was one of her many students at the École des Beaux-Arts.

You can admire his sculptures at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Musée d'Orsay, the Harvard Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, the British Museum and in our galleries in Saint Ouen.