Prosper Mérimée

1. Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805-1873)
Florinda, 1853
Oil on canvas - 178.4 x 245.7 cm
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Photo: Didier Rykner

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A writer, of course, and one of the best of the French nineteenth century, of which there were many, but also a historian, art critic and many other things besides, Prosper Mérimée is a fascinating character. And La Tribune de l’Art, whose vocation includes defending our heritage, is bound to admire this man who was one of the first to defend historic monuments in France. The exhibition at the Château de Compiègne covers all his activities. It is, let it be said straight away, absolutely remarkable, and will fully satisfy art lovers. In addition to works linked to the writer’s life (portraits of his colleagues and friends, documents relating to his work as inspector of historic monuments, drawings and prints illustrating his novels and plays, etc.), the exhibition also looks at three subjects directly linked to the artistic production of his time. An evocation of the career of his father, who was an honourable neoclassical painter, even though he gave up his career as an artist fairly quickly; the drawings and watercolours of Prosper Mérimée himself, who had a very talented pencil stroke; and finally his activity as an art critic, which he exercised on the occasion of two Parisian Salons (1839 and 1853) and which allow us to admire certain works that he mentioned, sometimes coming from far away (a painting from the Metropolitan Museum, for example - ill. 1) and often little known.

2. Simon Jacques Rochard (1788-1872)
Portrait of Léonor Mérimée, 1828
Black chalk, highlights in wash and gouache, pastel - 18 x 15.1 cm
Paris, Musée du Louvre
Photo: Didier Rykner

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3. Léonor Mérimée (1757-1836)
Vertumne and Pomona, 1798-1799
Oil on canvas - 39.5 x 30 cm
Montpellier, Musée Fabre
Photo: Didier Rykner

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So let’s start the tour at the beginning with his father, Léonor Mérimée. His portrait by his pupil Simon Jacques Rochard (ill. 2) (an artist who is at least as little known as he is) is a lovely sheet preserved in the Louvre. In the same museum, in the Salle de Diane, we can see a mural [1] which obviously could not come but whose preparatory drawing we regret is not on display. This, even more than the finished work, shows the real talent of its author, less evident in the sketch for Vertumne and Pomona (ill. 3) or the engraving after Innocence Feeding a Snake, still very much influenced by the rococo period. The two final paintings were promised to the Louvre, but they were destroyed along with a large part of his production in the fire in his son’s flat in 1871.

4. Auguste Deroy fils (1823-1906)
The town hall of Compiègne
Lithograph - 45 x 30.5 cm
Compiègne, Musée national du château
Photo: RMN-GP/S. Maréchalle

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