Trained in the French Academic tradition, Hugues Merle was an expert draftsman who relied on the close study of human anatomy and a smooth, polished style to achieve a sense of naturalism in his paintings. Here the defiant gaze of the child draws viewers into an intimate scene of maternal dedication and youthful disobedience as the boy resists learning the alphabet. Although the subject of this painting seems drawn from everyday life, Merle infuses the scene with a timeless quality through the figures’ simple, classicizing attire and pyramidal pose (a stable arrangement of figures that forms a pyramid), which recalls Renaissance depictions of the Virgin and Child. This kind of moralizing and sentimental subject was popular with audiences at the Paris Salon, where Merle regularly submitted works and achieved a high degree of success in the 1860s.

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   The defiant gaze of the young child draws viewers into an intimate scene of maternal affection and youthful disobedience. The mother, who functions as a warm and supportive chair, holds an alphabet book in her hand and instructs her infant in his lesson. The furrowed brow and downturned lips of the young boy sharply contrast the patient expression of the mother and reveal his resistance to the lesson.
   Hugues Merle, a French painter trained in the Academic tradition, was an expert draftsman who relied on the close study of human anatomy to achieve naturalism in his paintings. He regularly submitted his works to the Paris Salon and was twice awarded the second class medal in 1861 and 1863. The First Thorns of Knowledge once belonged to the Duke of Morny, the half-brother of Napoleon III.

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