A listed artist, Hiram Campbell Merrill (1866-1958) was a Boston-born painter and engraver, who in addition to pursuing his own art worked for Harpers magazine in New York. This drawing, while undated, I know was made on a trip to Brittany in 1909, during which he made studies that provided material for many later paintings and engravings. And it is in fact two drawings, one glued to the corner of the other, comprising two views of an old alms box in the Notre Dame de Crénénan Chapel near Guemene-sur-Scorff, a commune in the Morbihan department in Brittany in northwestern France. I am not sure if this alms box ever turned up again in his work, but I really love the attention he paid to it its medieval construction, dating to the 15th century I believe.
8 1/4” tall x 5 1/2” wide; excellent condition.
