Antonin Mercié

ANTONIN MERCIÉ (France, 1845 - 1916).
"Quand même".
Patinated bronze.
Presents stamp of Mechanical Reduction Achille Collas.
Presents stamp of the foundry F. Barbedienne.
Signed and titled.
Measurements: 85 x 40 x 30 cm.
Bronze sculpture entitled "Quand meme", created by the great sculptor Antonin Mercié in 1882. "Quand même!" is a tribute to the German shepherd resistance during the siege, and its name echoes the motto of the patriots in 1880: "Because, in spite of everything, we must resist all the same...".Originally, the monument was intended as a tribute to Thiers (who made it possible for the Territoire de Belfort to remain part of Alsace at the time)Sculptor Antonin Mercié, a supporter of popular combat, created a statue depicting a German shepherd woman defying the enemy, rifle at the ready and supporting a defeated soldier. Mercié, who had had great popular success with the "David" and the "Gloria Victis", once again stood out with this patriotic model, presented in plaster at the 1882 Salon and at the 1883 National Exhibition of Fine Arts. A large marble model, now in the collections of the Musée d'Orsay, was presented at the 1900 Paris Universal Exposition.
A bronze version was acquired by the city of Belfort and decorates the Place d'Armes. A bronze version from the Barbedienne foundry is in the Museum of Fine Arts in Valenciennes (1.27 m high), a copy in the Pasteur Museum in Paris (65 cm high), other versions in the Unterlinden Museum in Colmar and in the National Museum of Fine Arts in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Painter and sculptor, Antonin Mercié studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he was a disciple of Alexandre Falguière and François Jouffroy. In 1868 he was awarded the Prix de Rome, which allowed him to further his training in Italy. His first important works were "David" and "Gloria Victis", awarded medals of honor at the Paris Salons of 1872 and 1874. In 1882 he repeated this success with the group "Quand Même!", which like "Gloria Victis" recalls the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. From the end of the seventies he would carry out important commissions, such as "Le Genie des Arts" for the Tuileries (1877), "Le souvenir" for the tomb of Madame Charles Ferry (1885) or "Regret", for that of Alexandre Cabanel (1892). Mercié also realized the monuments to J.L.E. Meissonier (1895), in the Jardin de l'Infante of the Louvre; the one dedicated to Louis Faidherbe (1896), in Lille; and the one of the kings Louis Philippe I and Amélie for their burial in the royal chapel of Dreux. Apart from these monumental commissions, Mercié also made small sculptures, busts and medallions, production that earned him the medal of honor at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1878, and the Grand Prix at the 1889. He also gained recognition as a painter, being awarded medals at the Salons of 1883 and 1885. In 1891 he became professor of drawing and sculpture at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and that same year he was named a member of the Académie Française. He was subsequently awarded the rank of Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor, and in 1913 he became president of the Society of French Artists. Mercié is currently represented in the Louvre, the Musée de l'Orsay, the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux, Rennes and Chambéry, the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris, the Musée des Augustins in Toulouse, the National Gallery in Washington, the Courtauld Institute in London and others.