Emile Mercier collection of cartoons and drawings

PXD 1643

fonds

1919-1997

Graphic Materials, Drawings

9680440

1 sketchbook (41 drawings) - pencil, watercolour - 20 x 27 cm
36 drawings - pencil, ink - 12 x 52 cm or smaller

Emile Alfred Lucien Mercier was born on 10 August 1901 in Nouméa, New Caledonia. In 1919, he moved to Sydney, New South Wales and took evening classes at the Julian Ashton Art School. In February 1923, he sold his first cartoon to Smith's Weekly and quit full-time work to become an artist. He predominantly worked freelance, selling illustrations to various publications including the Bulletin, the Herald (Melbourne) and ABC Weekly, with modest success. In about 1937, he joined Smith's Weekly as an artist. From 1940, he worked as a political cartoonist for the Daily Mirror (Sydney). Between 1949 and 1968, he was employed full-time with the Sydney tabloid, the Sun. Many of his cartoons were published in annual anthologies during the 1940s and 1950s, including children's primers and books on which he collaborated with his second wife, Flora. He married three times: to Esther Rodo Dunbar (b.1902) on 1 March 1924; to Flora Hazel Joan Gallagher (1909-1955) on 17 December 1932, with whom he had two sons; and to Patricia Clare Alfonso (1923?-2004?) on 22 May 1963, who had three sons from a previous marriage. Emile Mercier died on 17 March 1981 in Sydney.

References:
Australian Dictionary of Biography. "Emile Alfred Lucien Mercier (1901–1981)". Accessed 29 May 2024. https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mercier-emile-alfred-lucien-14968

Collection purchased by Lindsay Arnold from Michael Mercier, son of Emile Mercier.

1 sketchbook containing 41 sketches during Emile Mercier's time at the Julian Ashton Art School, 1919-1920. Album is inscribed in the lower right corner of the cover "Emile Mercier".

12 annotated gag sketches on paper, six stamped "Suggestion from Emile Mercier".

18 annotated and numbered illustrations for "Shout for the Adder" by Keith Garvey, 1980, including 3 unused, unnumbered alternate versions.

4 unpublished comic roughs, numbered 5, 6, 7, 8; potential forerunners for the 1940s Doc Mcswiggle comic strip.

1 pencil and ink illustration of a woman with 1 still-life pencil sketch of a woman on verso. Includes a letter to "Mrs Mercier" from Bruce Williams, whose father worked with Emile Mercier, about this drawing being Mercier's first in Australia. Letter received 20 November 1997.

Also includes 2 pocket memo books containing written gag ideas; 1 page of handwritten notes on bovine evolution.

Copyright restrictions may apply:
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and Courtesy copyright holder

1 illustration of a was woman published in ‘The Art of Emile Mercier: A Retrospective Miscellany’ by Lindsay Arnold, 2023, p. 4. 7 of the 12 gag sketches were published in the book ‘The Art of Emile Mercier: A Retrospective Miscellany’ by Lindsay Arnold, 2023, pp.54-55