Photo of the Week – September 19, 2014

This week’s photograph was taken on a glass plate negative in 1908, and it shows the artist Marius Jean Antonin Mercié at work in his atelier. Mercié (1845-1916), was a French sculptor and painter, known especially for his bronze statue of David, which is currently exhibited at the Musée d’Orsay. The artist was taught by Alexandre Falguière and François Jouffroy at l’École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, and he received le Grand Prix de Rome when he was just 23. He is also known for The Genius of the Arts, a relief in the Tuileries gardens, a monument to Paul Baudry in Père Lachaise Cemetery, as well as several monuments in the U.S. including the Robert E. Lee Monument in Richmond, Virginia and the 1911 Francis Scott Key Monument in Baltimore, Maryland. Image , via Gallica