Falling Leaves, Allegory of Autumn

Hugues Merle

1872 · Oil on canvas · European Paintings

Merle, a friend and sometime rival of Bouguereau, was known for the sentimental images of contented rustic families that he regularly exhibited at the annual Salons. In this painting from 1872, Merle tried his hand at a loosely mythological scene of a languid young woman in the guise of Fall. Catharine Lorillard Wolfe bought the melancholic picture from the New York branch of the art gallery Goupil & Co. on February 21, 1873, while still in mourning for her father. A critic who saw the work in Wolfe’s home remarked, "Here, under russet foliage, a ripe beauty passes…. Nearby, disguised so much in shadow as to be almost invisible, little Love is running away; for this bereavement of affection is the plague of life’s Autumn, as love’s importunity is the plague of its Spring."

Artist

Hugues Merle

Date

1872

Medium

Oil on canvas

Department

European Paintings

Credit line

Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Collection, Bequest of Catharine Lorillard Wolfe, 1887