Eugène Lemercier (7 November 1886 – 6 April 1915) was a French artist and soldier in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. His letters to his mother are a first-hand account of the war, and are preserved in the National Library of Ireland. He is believed to be the subject of

Wallace Stevens Wallace Stevens (October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955) was an American modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as an executive for an insurance compa ...

' poem " The Death of a Soldier."

Early life and artistic career

Eugène Emmanuel Lemercier was born in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

on 7 November 1886. He was the son of Marguerite O’Hagan and Eugène-Augustin Lemercier. His grandmother was the Irish portrait artist Harriet Osborne O'Hagan, and his mother was also an artist. His father died before Lemercier was born. Lemercier entered the

École des Beaux-Arts École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth century ...

at age fifteen. He left the École in 1906 to join the army to complete his military service. Lemercier won a number of government prizes for his paintings between 1906 and 1914, for pieces such as ''La Contemplation'' (Study for 'Contemplation'), which is held by the

National Gallery of Ireland The National Gallery of Ireland ( ga, Gailearaí Náisiúnta na hÉireann) houses the national collection of Irish and European art. It is located in the centre of Dublin with one entrance on Merrion Square, beside Leinster House, and another on ...

. He began a new work, when he was drafted into the army after the outbreak of World War I.

Military career and writing

Lemercier's military service began in 1906 when he joined the 106th Regiment of infantry in Chalons-sur-Marne. As Lemercier was enrolled in higher education, his service was just one year. After his drafting back into the army in August 1914, he wrote to his mother almost every day from 4 August 1914 until 6 April 1915. He also wrote to his grandmother, and to a circle of friends. During September and October, Lemercier was in what he called "the zone of the horrors", during which time he received no correspondence and he wrote in his diary. His writings are held by the National Library of Ireland (NLI), as a first-hand testimony of the war. He disappeared, presumed dead, during the Battle of

Les Éparges Les Éparges () is a commune in the Meuse department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. A ridge to the east of the village was the site of a fierce battle during World War I, and there are many memorials and monuments in the area. See also ...

in April 1915. The collection in the NLI consists of 263 letters and postcards, two journals and photographs, as well as letters from his mother about his correspondence and artworks. The letters were published as ''Lettres d'un soldat : août 1914-avril 1915''.

References

External links

Details of his correspondence in French
* * Letters of a Soldier, 1914-1915, a collection of his correspondence, free on

Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a Virtual volunteering, volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lemercier, Eugene 1886 births 1915 deaths Artists from Paris French military personnel killed in World War I