M. Hughes Merle, the painter, who died last April, was born in 1823. He studied the art of painting under Leon Cogniet, and exhibited for the first time at the Salon of 1848. One of his paintings La Mendiante, was purchased in 1861 by the State and placed in the Luxemburg. M. Merle obtained a second-class medal in 1861, and was made a Knight of the Legion of Honour in 1866.