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Mary Magdalene in the Cave - Hugues Merle (1868)
(mdl.artvee.com)
Hugues Merle was a French painter who mostly depicted sentimental or moral subjects. He has often been compared with William-Adolphe Bouguereau.
Merle was born in 1822 in La Sône. He studied painting with Léon Cogniet. Hugues Merle became a friend of Paul Durand-Ruel in the early 1860s. Durand-Ruel had started buying paintings by Merle in 1862 and introduced the artist to painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau. Merle was later often compared to Bouguereau and “became a considerable rival of Bouguereau in subject and treatment”.
More art: https://artvee.com/artist/hugues-merle/
Question, maybe off topic. But Mary’s clutching a cross here. Was a cross already a symbol by the time Jesus died on one? It’s a tool of torture and death. If someone I loved died by stabbing, I wouldn’t lie around like that with a knife.
The cross became the symbol of Jesus' martyrdom as soon as he took it up
I assume she picked it up at the gift shop on the way in.
j/k
I actually assume the artist is using that symbol to communicate with his 19th century audience. He wanted to focus on her in this work, but also needed to communicate who she is and why she's swooning. Just my guess to be clear.