Hugues Merle (1822–1881) was a French painter who mostly depicted sentimental or moral subjects.

Hugues Merle became a friend of Paul Durand-Ruel in the early 1860s.

Durand-Ruel had started buying paintings by Merle in 1862 and introduced the artist to painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau.

[4] In the mid-1860s, Merle painted several portraits of Paul Durand-Ruel, his wife, and their son, John.

[5] David Lynch and Mark Frost's Twin Peaks TV series character the Log Lady resembles Hugues Merle's painting The Lunatic of Étretat (1871).