Fernande Hortense Cécile de Mertens (9 May 1850 - 24 January 1924) was a Belgian-French painter.

Life

Fernande de Mertens was the fifth of six children of the baron Edouard Mertens and his wife Sophie Lambertine Woelfling, and Fernande was thus a baroness herself. Hélène Échinard writes that in Marseille, Fernande attended the École des Beaux-Arts where she was taught by Théodore Jourdan and

Dominique Antoine Magaud Dominique Antoine Jean-Baptiste Magaud (4 August 1817, Marseille - 23 December 1899, Marseille) was a French painter, muralist and art school director. Biography He came from a middle-class family and began his career as a customs weigher for ...

. Aged 35, on 27 April 1886, she married the French painter Pierre Jean, and thus acquired French citizenship. In 1888, she became a member of the

Société des Artistes Français The Société des Artistes Français (, meaning "Society of French Artists") is the association of French painters and sculptors established in 1881. Its annual exhibition is called the "Salon des artistes français" (not to be confused with the ...

. The couple had a dedicated studio at the Boulevard de la Corderie in

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

, where she taught the use of

pastel A pastel () is an art medium in a variety of forms including a stick, a square a pebble or a pan of color; though other forms are possible; they consist of powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are similar to those use ...

– a popular technique at the time for young girls of respected background. Fernande and her husband never had children. Although her father Edouard and his three brothers had a total of fourteen children among them, there were no grandchildren for the Mertens nobility; the last known bearer of the name and title died in 1926, not long after Fernande's own death.

Work

Fernande de Mertens - Portrait of Pierre Jean

The Provençal painters of the late 19th and early 20th century, favouring subjects from the Provence region, are often referred to as the Provençal School, with Fernande de Mertens being one of their few female painters. Aside from pastel, in which she has produced primarily female portraits, she also worked with oil, producing portraits as well as genre scenes. Her works have been exhibited in multiple salons, including Nîmes, Montpellier, Lyon, Niort, Draguignan, Aix-en-Provence, and her hometown Marseille. Starting from 1879, her paintings have been exhibited in Paris as well, including in the

Paris Salon The Salon (french: Salon), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art ...

, where she has presented at least 13 paintings between 1879 and 1900, primarily portraits. Many portraits were of Marseille locals, and known or attributed portraits include one she painted of the painter

Alfred Casile Alfred Casile (1848–1909) was a French landscape and marine painter. Biography His mother was from an old, established Marseille family. His father was of Corsican origin and held a high position in the railroad company. He received his art ...

, of Gabriel Fabre, and of her husband Pierre Jean. (Her husband, incidentally, had presented a portrait of her at the salon two years earlier.) A portrait of her mother, presented in 1882, received a gold medal at Nîmes the next year, the same year her mother died; following this, the portrait would remain in Mertens' own private possession. In 1884, her work received an honorable mention at the Paris Salon, and between 1886 and 1897, most of her contributions have received illustrations in the Salon's catalogue. Her genre scene ''Chez Grand-Père'' was lauded as "a family scene from which a great poetry emerges". Among others, her works are now in the collections of Musée Ziem in Martigues and Musée des Beaux-Arts as well as

Musée Cantini The Musée Cantini is a museum in Marseilles that has been open to the public since 1936. The museum specializes in modern art, especially paintings from the first half of the twentieth century. The building The musée Cantini building was bui ...

in Marseille. Since her marriage, her works have been signed as F. de Mertens, J.-F. de Mertens, and F. Jean de Mertens.

Gallery

File:Fernande de Mertens - Portrait of Gabriel Fabre (Musée Ziem, Martigues; Gérard Dufrêne).jpg, Portrait of Gabriel Fabre (1917) File:Fernande de Mertens - A portrait of a woman.jpg, Portrait of a woman File:Alfred Casile par Fernande Mertens.jpg, Portrait of Alfred Casile (Attributed) File:Fernande de Mertens - Portrait of a woman with a crown of flowers.jpg, Portrait of a woman with a crown of flowers File:Fernande de Mertens - Portrait of a woman.jpg, Portrait of a woman File:Fernande de Mertens - Daydreaming.jpg, Daydreaming (c. 1880) File:Fernande de Mertens - Chez Grand-Père (Musée Ziem, Martigues).jpg, Chez Grand-Père (1900)

References

Acte de Mariage (27 April 1886)
Archives Départementales des Bouches-du-Rhône: Marseille, France. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mertens, Fernande 1850 births 1924 deaths Belgian women painters