{{short description|French painter (1822–1882)}}

{{Infobox artist | name = Hugues Merle | image = Merle - Young Woman And Child.JPG | caption = ''The First Thorns of Knowledge'' (''Les premières épines de la science''), 1864, Dallas Museum of Art | birth_date = {{Birth date|1822|04|28}} | birth_place = La Sône, France | death_date = {{Death year and age|1881|1822}} | death_place = Paris, France | field = Painting | training = | movement = | works = | awards = | children = Georges Merle }} '''Hugues Merle''' (1822–1881) was a French painter who mostly depicted sentimental or moral subjects. He has often been compared to William-Adolphe Bouguereau.

==Biography== Hugues Merle was born in 1822 in La Sône.<ref>{{in lang|fr}}Mairie de La Sône, registre année 1822, naissance, n°5 (Michaël Vottero, « Hugues Merle (1822-1881) Peinture de genre et marché de l'art sous le Second Empire », ''Bulletin de la société de l'histoire de l'art français'', 2011, {{p.|145-216}}, note 2).</ref> He studied painting with Léon Cogniet. Merle started exhibiting at the Salon (Paris) in 1847. He received second class prizes in 1861 and 1863.<ref name="zafran">{{cite book|last=Zafran|first=Eric|title=European Art in the High Museum|year=1984}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Whiteley">{{cite book|last=Whiteley|first=Linda|title=Accounting for Tastes|year=1979|publisher=Oxford Art Journal|page=26}}</ref> Merle was later often compared to Bouguereau and “became a considerable rival of Bouguereau in subject and treatment”.<ref name="Stranahan">{{cite book|last=Stranahan|first=C.H.|title=A History of French Painting|year=1917|page=398}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Birmingham Museum of Art | title = Birmingham Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection | publisher = Giles | year = 2010 | location = London | pages = 142 | url = http://www.birminghammuseumstore.org/bmapu.html | accessdate = 2011-06-27 | isbn = 978-1-904832-77-5 | url-status = dead | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20110910171150/http://www.birminghammuseumstore.org/bmapu.html | archivedate = 2011-09-10 }}</ref>

==Influence== David Lynch and Mark Frost's Twin Peaks TV series character the Log Lady resembles Hugues Merle's painting ''The Lunatic of Étretat'' (1871).<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.macguffinmagazine.com/stories/macguffin-log-lady | title=MacGuffin &#124; Log Lady }}</ref>

== Gallery == <gallery widths="180" heights="180"> File:Hugues Merle - Maternal Affection.jpg|''Maternal Affection'' File:Hugues Merle - Tristan and Isolde (3698339).jpg|''Tristan and Isolde'' File:Hugues Merle - Contes enfantines (3696032).jpg|''The Storyteller'' File:Maternal Love by Hugues Merle, 1880, High Museum of Art.jpg|''Maternal Love'' File:Hugues merle thoughts of the future061605).jpg|''Thoughts of the Future'' File:Hugues Merle - 3698109.jpg|''Romeo and Juliet'' File:Hugues Merle, 1872 - L'Abandonnée.jpg|''L'abandonnée'', 1872 File:Hugues Merle - Reading the Bible - P597 - The Wallace Collection.jpg|''Les Orphelines'' File:Hugues Merle - Saint Elizabeth of Hungary - 56.284 - Detroit Institute of Arts.jpg|''Saint Elizabeth of Hungary'', 1879 File:Hugues Merle, Mother and Child, c. 1864. Clark Art Institute.tif|''Mother and Child'', c. 1869. Clark Art Institute File:The Forgotten.webp|''The Forgotten'' File:2021 CKS 20111 0069 000(georges hugues merle esther125500).jpg|''Esther'' File:Hugues Merle - The Scarlet Letter - Walters 37172.jpg|''The Scarlet Letter'', 1861 </gallery>

==References== {{reflist}}

==Bibliography== *''European Art in the High Museum'', by Eric M. Zafran, Atlanta, 1984 *"Accounting for Tastes", by Linda Whiteley, ''Oxford Art Journal,'' Vol. 2, Art and Society (Apr., 1979), pp.&nbsp;25–28

{{Commons category-inline|Hugues Merle}} {{Authority control (arts)}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Merle, Hugues}} Category:19th-century French painters Category:French male painters Category:French Roman Catholics Category:1822 births Category:1881 deaths Category:Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery Category:19th-century French male artists