Franz de Merlier 1878-1974 Collection
Scope and Contents
This collection documents Franz de Merlier’s life and career as an artist and teacher between 1898 and 1972. This collection notably contains 130 pages of handwritten, autobiographical notes by Franz de Merlier compiled by his son Edouard, a cassette tape of an oral interview between Edouard and Franz de Merlier, as well as slides and photographs of the artist, his artworks, and his students. Series one documents pieces of de Merlier’s life and career as arranged by his family. Series two through three documents de Merlier’s life as he wanted to be remembered, as well as a peek into the mind of an artist drawn to the Brandywine River Valley.
The Franz de Merlier Collection supports works held within the Brandywine Museum of Art’s fine arts collection, donated by the West Chester Area School District, and de Merlier’s wife, Marie Rose de Merlier.
Dates
- Creation: 1898 - 1972
- Creation: Majority of material found within 1920 - 1952
Creator
- de Merlier, Franz, 1878-1974 (Person)
- de Merlier, Edouard (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for researchers by appointment only. Please contact the Research Center for information on access and research.
Conditions Governing Use
Materials held within the Research Center may be protected by copyright. Authorization to reproduce, publish, or quote from any restricted material requires permission from the copyright holder and is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain.
Biographical / Historical
Franz de Merlier was born in Ghent, Belgium in 1878. His widowed mother remarried when he was a teenager to his stepfather, Felix van Neste, who introduced him to art and took de Merlier in as an apprentice in his lithography firm. This experience was cut short, however, when friction developed between de Merlier and his stepfather after de Merlier won an award at the Academie des Beaux-Arts in Bruges. De Merlier moved to Brussels, and later, to the United States at the age of 22 finding employment making illustrations for the Louisville Courier Journal.
De Merlier moved to Cincinnati and then Chicago for work before he settled in Philadelphia. He studied at The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and opened an art studio with a fellow student, and later writer Joseph Hergesheimer (1880-1954). In 1907, de Merlier married Elise Thetenot. Together they had a son, Edouard, and a daughter, Josephine. The couple divorced in 1926. Five years later, he met Marie Rose, or Mira, with whom he would spend the rest of his life.
The artist and Mira moved to the Brandywine Valley where de Merlier found inspiration for his art in the local landscape. For eight years, they lived with farmer Wilmer Tanguy and his family. de Merlier became part of the local art community, with the Wyeths, Peter Hurd, and art scholar, Christian Brinton. He supported his family with mural commissions for the West Chester Area School District, the Lititz Community Theater, and the Claridge Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
The artist exhibited his paintings of the Brandywine Valley throughout Pennsylvania, as well as: Brooklyn, New York; New Haven, Connecticut; and Boston, Massachusetts. de Merlier created three series of paintings: “House of Tanguy” (1930-1939), “Dormant Farm” (1939-1943), and “Spirit of Regeneration, Our Brandywine Valley” (1943-1946). de Merlier taught art at a variety of schools including the Bryn Mawr Art Center and the Berks Art Alliance. In 1974, Franz de Merlier passed away at the age of 96.
In 1982, the Brandywine Museum of art held an exhibition of Franz de Merlier’s work titled, “Franz de Merlier: the exhibition.”
Extent
3.125 Linear Feet (1 box, 2 binders)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
The Franz de Merlier Collection was given to the Museum by the artist’s son, Edouard de Merlier in 1972. The collection includes a significant number of scrapbook pages with newspaper clippings and photographs of de Merlier’s murals and paintings compiled by his son Edouard; slides, photographs, and catalogs; a cassette tape of an oral interview from 1962; and two binders of autobiographical, handwritten notes by Franz de Merlier, arranged by his son Edouard in 1972. The collection largely aims to preserve an accurate history of the Belgian artist and his accomplishments.
Arrangement
The collection is contained within one flat document box and two archival binders. The autobiographical material that was stored within one binder was removed due to rust and relocated (in original order) between two archival binders. The first half is stored within Box 2, the second in Box 3. Box 1 is arranged by material type, and in size order: smallest (cassette, photographs, ephemera) on top and largest (scrapbook) on the bottom. Both binders of this collection are arranged in the original order of the discarded binder. These materials were split between two archival binders due to storage restrictions.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Edouard de Merlier, 1972
Accruals
No further accruals expected.
Bibliography
Processing Information
The artist’s autobiography was removed from the three-ring binder as received by its donor, Edouard de Merlier. The pages were torn with crumbling edges. Each page was placed in polypropylene sheets with archival paper, then placed into two archival binders separated not by the specific content of the notes but by limitations of the space in the binders. Binder 1 contains the label from the original binder.
The cassette tape was placed in an acid free envelope, scrapbook pages were interleaved with acid-free paper, photographs were placed in 4x6 polypropylene sheets, and catalogs were placed within polypropylene sheets.
Subject
- de Merlier, Franz, 1878-1974 (Person)
- Title
- Finding Aid to the Franz de Merlier 1878-1974 Collection
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Charissa Skoutelas and Virginia O’Hara
- Date
- 2019
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Revision Statements
- 2024: Edits and DACS formatting made by Bri Cronin
Repository Details
Part of the Walter & Leonore Annenberg Research Center - Archives & Special Collections Repository
1 Hoffman's Mill Road
PO Box 141
Chadds Ford PA 19317 United States
610-388-8310
research@brandywine.org