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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/
Right...
Let's try again.
Strange how a Middle Eastern ~~child bride~~ woman who was born in the Jewish city of Magdala, and likely a brown-skinned brunette with Semitic features ~~and also was likely raped by a Roman soldier and had to lie to her husband that she was immaculately pregnant to avoid being beheaded~~ is portrayed across the world as a white blonde haired blue eyed Anglo-European.
Better!