Philip Mercier
Encyclopedia
Painter of portraits and a pioneer in England of conversation piece and ‘fancy pictures’; an important figure in the introduction of French taste into England.
Life
Born in FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
to a tapestry worker of French Huguenot
Huguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...
stock working for the Elector of Brandenburg, he trained there from 1711 under Antoine Pesne
Antoine Pesne
Antoine Pesne was the court painter of Prussia. Starting in the manner of baroque, he became one of the fathers of rococo in painting....
, another French-born artist, who was working as Court Painter to Frederick I of Prussia
Frederick I of Prussia
Frederick I , of the Hohenzollern dynasty, was Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia in personal union . The latter function he upgraded to royalty, becoming the first King in Prussia . From 1707 he was in personal union the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel...
. Mercier travelled for some time in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, familiarising himself with the work of Watteau
Antoine Watteau
Jean-Antoine Watteau was a French painter whose brief career spurred the revival of interest in colour and movement...
(even etching and perhaps forging it) and acting as an art dealer in Watteau's works (holding, for example, a sale of pictures "collected abroad" in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1742). He then settled for good in England in 1715, receiving his first patronage from courtiers at the Hanoverian court, and eventually (from straight after Frederick's arrival in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
from Hanover
Hanover
Hanover or Hannover, on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony , Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg...
in December 1728) Frederick, Prince of Wales
Frederick, Prince of Wales
Frederick, Prince of Wales was a member of the House of Hanover and therefore of the Hanoverian and later British Royal Family, the eldest son of George II and father of George III, as well as the great-grandfather of Queen Victoria...
, for all of whom he produced conversation pieces and portraits. He was a member of the St Luke's Club between 1726 and 1735.
He was made Frederick's Principal Painter (1729–36) and Library Keeper (1730–8), with the latter post also including buying pictures for the Prince's collection, but fell from royal favour within ten years and moved out of London, possibly to Northamptonshire, for a year during 1736–7. He then returned to London by October 1737, to focus on 'fancy pictures
Fancy pictures
Fancies was a term coined in 1737 by the art critic and historian George Vertue to describe genre scenes that also incorporated invented or imagined elements, or a storyline. He invented in to describe the paintings of Philip Mercier, such as Venetian Girl at a Window or the series The Five Senses...
' influenced by Chardin
Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin
Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin was an 18th-century French painter. He is considered a master of still life, and is also noted for his genre paintings which depict kitchen maids, children, and domestic activities...
. In 1739 he moved to York
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
for 12 years, which proved his most productive period. There he painted portraits and sentimental domestic subjects, playing to subjects favoured by the print market (a "fancy" series by him, along with other works, were printed, mainly by Faber Jnr and Houston). He made visits to Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
(1747), Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
(1750) and Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
(1751–2, receiving English merchants' portrait commissions), finally returning to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1752, where he exhibited three works at the first summer exhibition at the Royal Academy
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
in 1760 before dying later that year in London.
Marriages and children
- Margaret Plante, London, 1719
- Dorothy Clapham, London, 1735.
His children were Charlotte (1738–62) and his son Philip, who both became artists.
External links
- Portraits by Philip Mercier at the National Portrait Gallery, London
- Paintings by Philip Mercier at Tate BritainTate BritainTate Britain is an art gallery situated on Millbank in London, and part of the Tate gallery network in Britain, with Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is the oldest gallery in the network, opening in 1897. It houses a substantial collection of the works of J. M. W. Turner.-History:It...
- John Ingamells & Robert Raines, ‘A Catalogue of the Paintings, Drawings and Etchings of Philip Mercier’, Walpole Society, XLVI, 1978, pp.1–70
- Exhibition catalogue for "Philip Mercier", put on by York City Art Gallery and Kenwood in 1969
- Elizabeth Einberg and Judy Egerton, The Age of Hogarth: British Painters Born 1675-1709, Tate Gallery Collections, II, London 1988