Woman Listening Attentively, Ca 1870 Antique French Chalk and Graphite Drawing

This study of a woman as she is listening attentively is sketched with the confident strokes of a master draughtsman. Dating from the 1870s, the work has been attributed to Luc-Olivier Merson (1846-1920), but is unsigned.

I am attaching to the listing a couple of photos by known works by Merson, which I think will illustrate how this attribution came about. Merson indeed like to heighten his graphite drawings on toned paper with white chalk, as is the case in the work presented here.

Born Nicolas Luc-Olivier Merson in Paris, Merson grew up in an artistic household, the son of Charles-Olivier Merson, a painter and art critic. He studied under Gustave Chassevent at the École de Dessin and then Isidore Pils at the École des Beaux-Arts. He had his first work exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1866 and three years later was awarded the Prix de Rome. During the five years spent working in Italy, he concentrated on religious and historical subjects for his art.

Back in France, in 1875 he won the first-prize medal at the exhibition by the Société des Artistes Français. Notre-Dame de Paris, one of Merson's best-known paintings, was created in 1881 as a result of the huge popularity of the Victor Hugo novel of the same name. With its mystical Gothic imagery, its style reflects the influence of the then evolving Symbolist movement.

He did major decorative commissions for such institutions as the Palais de Justice, the Louis Pasteur Museum, and the mosaic in the chancel vault in the Basilica of the Sacré Cœur. He also did the artwork for stained-glass windows, an example of which can be found in the Church of the Holy Trinity Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His profile was raised considerably after being awarded a gold medal for his painting at the 1889 Exposition Universelle, and in 1892 he was elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts.

Our drawing measures 34 x 27.5 cm at sight. The framed size is 51 x 52 cm

A second drawing by the same hand - and depicting the same woman - is available in a separate listing.

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