Mercie's First model.
Miss Nicholas, treasurer of the Ladies' Monument Association, turned over to the consolidated association $15,602. 17 in different securities. Five thousand had been expended in a competitive exhibition. Colonel Archer Anderson and Mr. A. W. Harman, Jr., were appointed to confer with the City Council of the city of Richmond in regard to the foundation of the Lee monument.Among the models submitted for inspection there was one that showed such evidences of genius that it attracted the first attention of every visitor, but the position of the horse and rider showed such a glaring misconception of the character of General Lee that no one thought of it as winning a prize. It was marked ‘Glory to the Hero.’ It represented a triumphant warrior careering over the battle-field waving a sword and shouting to his followers. [201] too often during the progress of his work to need repetition. It is much to be regretted that the artist cannot be present to witness the enthusiasm with which his statue is received. He is described as ‘a short, thick-set, squarely built man, with dark hair and eyes, and a short black beard.’ He is a native of Toulouse, and holding the eminence which he does in art, he is much sought in Parisian society; he has a handsome establishment, whose windows look out on the charming gardens of the Avenue de L'Observatoire, and in the rear of his house is his studio. One of the orders he received during the past year is for a tomb to be erected in Constantinople. Mons. Mercie is a painter as well as a sculptor. He is a rapid worker; and as an illustration of his merit, it may be mentioned that he generally has three works in the Gallery of the Luxembourg, that first camping ground of a work of art on its way to the Louvre, into which noble collection an one is admitted, until ten years after the death of the artist; and no artist is allowed to have more than three works at the same time in the Luxembourg.
