[citation needed] Back in France, in 1875 he won the first-prize medal at the exhibition by the Société des artistes français.

Notre-Dame de Paris, one of Merson's best-known paintings, was created in 1881 as a result of the huge popularity of the Victor Hugo novel of the same name.

[citation needed] Merson did major decorative commissions for such institutions as the Palais de Justice, the Louis Pasteur Museum, and the mosaic in the chancel vault in the Basilica of the Sacré Cœur.

His profile was raised considerably after being awarded a gold medal for his painting at the 1889 Exposition Universelle, and in 1892 he was elected to the Académie des beaux-arts.

[citation needed] Among Merson's pupils were the American painter Claire Shuttleworth[3] and the Swiss printmaker Martha Cunz.