The Scarlet Letter c1861 by French Painter Hugues Merle (1822 – 1881); who specialized in paintings that depicted sentimental heart warming scenes and moral subject matter. His work is often compared to that of French Painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau; which you can also find in the Xzendor7 Classical Art Shop.
Nathaniel Hawthorne author of the novel “The Scarlet Letter”, published in 1850, regarded this painting, which William Walters (1820 – 1894; Businessman and Art Collector) commissioned from Merle in 1859, as the finest illustration of his novel.
This is a retouched digital art old masters reproduction of a public domain image.