Alexis Mérodack-Jeaneau was a French painter and sculptor from Angers who played an important—though often overlooked—role in the emergence of modern art. Trained by the Symbolist master Gustave Moreau, he moved within the same progressive circles as Matisse and Lautrec and helped shape the ideas that would later define Fauvism. Beyond his own practice, he was also a thoughtful writer and advocate of artistic innovation at the turn of the 20th century.