Antonin Mercié

ANTONIN MERCIÉ (France, 1845 - 1916).
"David vainqueur", 1872-1880.
Patinated bronze.
On wooden base.
The base shows old xylophages and wear.
Measurements: 75 x 36 x 26 cm (sculpture); 121 x 33 x 33 x 33 cm (base).
Bronze sculpture made by the famous sculptor Antonin Mercié. The work shows the young David, with beautiful features and harmonious body, at the moment of sheathing his sword after having killed Goliath. The head of the latter lies on the ground being stepped on by David in a victorious attitude. With the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 and the defeat of the country, the French society is invaded by a feeling of humiliation. Such a state of mind shows, in this David, the promise of a France that one day will defeat, despite its weakness, the Prussian Goliath, like the young shepherd of Israel who, with only his slingshot, brought down the enormous enemy. This immediately made the sculpture an immense success: the plaster cast executed in Rome, where the young artist was finishing his training, earned him the French Legion of Honor, and was commissioned in bronze by the State, in 1872, to be placed in the Luxembourg Museum and in the Museum of Living Artists from 1874. It became one of the most widely circulated images in illustrated newspapers, and provoked such enthusiasm that it was published in small format.
After the turn of 1870, Antonin Mercié represented the young generation of French sculptors eager to provide, from the heart of a classical teaching, a more vibrant expression to his figure. He sought this combination of wise composition and model with panache in the great models of the Florentine Renaissance, inspired, for example, by Donatello's "David". Thus, the use of the large and beautiful curves of the arm, prolonged by the movement of the sword, the bent leg, the grace of movement with a certain counterpoint, invites the viewer to turn around different planes that gradually adapt the space. Between modern classicism and explicit realism, Mercié finds an original way. We can find the "David Vainqueur" in large format in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the one in Montpellier and the one in Troyes, the latter a copy also cast by Barbedienne.
Painter and sculptor, Antonin Mercié studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he was a pupil 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 appointed 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.