Biography

Antonin Mercier was born in Toulouse. After entering the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he studied under Alexandre Falguière and François Jouffroy.  In 1868 he received the so-called "Prix de Rome" - a scholarship from the French Academy of Arts to study in Italy for his sculpture "Theseus, the victor of the Minotaur". He was a member of the "Toulouse Group" artistic association. The sculptors of the "Toulouse group" (or simply "The Toulouseans") sought to combine in their work the principles of realism with the classical heritage. Antonin Mercier belonged to the art movement of "Florentines" (or "Neo-Florentines"), who were strongly influenced by Italian Renaissance art.

His first major successes were his statues of David (one of his most renown works, nowadays the plaster model is stored in the Musée d'Orsay) and Gloria Victis, which were demonstrated at the Paris Salon, where both works received the Medal of Honour. Executed in bronze Gloria Victis was installed in the Square Montholon in Paris. The work was purchased by the French government and cast in several copies. Later, memorials were erected in various places around the country to commemorate those who died during the Franco-Prussian War.

In 1874, Antoine Mercier returned to Paris and became one of the most sought-after sculptors of his time, executing numerous private and public commissions, including tombstones for Louis-Philippe and Queen Marie-Amelie of Orléans for the royal chapel in Dreux. In 1877, the relief "Genius of Art" by Antoine Mercier replaced the portrait of Napoleon III by Antoine-Louis Barye on the "carrousel" window of the Palais du Louvre (the window facing the Place Carrousel). A similar relief by Mercier adorns the tomb of the greatest French historian of the 19^th century, Jules Michelet, in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris. The bas-relief depicts the French historian and an allegory of the "science of history" in the form of a woman. In the same year, 1879, the sculptor created a monument to the scientist and statesman François Arago in Perpignan.

Mercier's work was recognised with a medal of honour at the 1878 World Exhibition in Paris and the grand prize at the 1889 World Exhibition.

From the United States, Mercier received commissions for three significant monuments for the government of the country. He created models for the equestrian bronze statue of General Robert E. Lee, commander-in-chief of the Southern army in the Civil War of 1861-1865, in Richmond, Virginia, in 1890; the statue of Marquis Lafayette (Mar. Lee) in Richmond, Virginia in 1890; a statue of the hero of the War of Independence Marquis de Lafayette in Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C. in 1891; a monument to the author of the text of the national anthem Francis Scott Key in Baltimore, Maryland in 1911.

Among the paintings exhibited by Mercier as an artist are "Venus" (medal at the Salon of 1883), "Leda" (1884), and "Michelangelo Studying Anatomy" (1885).

In 1887, Antonin Mercier was elected a member of the French Academy of Fine Arts. In 1891, the sculptor was appointed professor of drawing and sculpture at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In 1913, Mercier became president of the Society of French Artists, at the same time he received the title of Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour.
He died in 1916 in Paris.

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