The painting in the image is a work by French artist Hugues Merle, a painter known for his sentimental and moral scenes.
Hugues Merle was born in 1822 and died in 1881. He studied painting with Léon Cogniet and began exhibiting at the Salon (Paris) in 1847.
Merle was compared to William-Adolphe Bouguereau and became a considerable rival in terms of subject matter and treatment. He was appointed Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1866.
Venice (1883) by Childe Hassam
The Sphinx in the Moonlight
(The Sphinx in the Moonlight, c1905, 1912)
Walter Frederick Roofe Tyndale
Venetians at the Balcony (1881)
Eugene de Blaas (1843 - 1932)
Source
The Injured Child (circa 1873)
— by Gustave Doré
Dancers With Musicians In A Woodland Glade (1733) by Thomas Gainsborough
The Execution of Lady Jane Grey by Paul Delaroche