Philippe Mercier (also spelledPhilip Mercier; 1689 – 18 July 1760) was an artist ofFrench Huguenot descent from the German realm ofBrandenburg-Prussia (laterKingdom of Prussia), usually defined toFrench school.[1] Active in England for most of his working life, Mercier is considered one of the first practitioners of theRococo style, and is credited with influencing a new generation of 18th-century English artists.[2]
He was appointed principal painter and librarian to thePrince and Princess of Wales at their independent establishment inLeicester Fields, and while he was in favour he painted various portraits of royalty, and no doubt many of the nobility and gentry. Of the royal portraits, those of the Prince of Wales and of his three sisters, painted in 1728, were all engraved in mezzotint byJohn Simon, and that of the three elder children of the Prince of Wales byJohn Faber the Younger in 1744. This last (entitledPlaying Soldiers[5]) was a typical piece of Mercier's composition, the children being made the subject of a spirited, if somewhat childish, allegory in their game of play. Prince George is represented with a firelock on his shoulder, teaching a dog his drill, while his little brother and sister are equally occupied in a scene that is aptly used to point a patriotic moral embodied in some verses subjoined to the plate, of which the concluding couplet is as follows:
Illustrious Isle where either sex displays Such early omens of their future praise!
In 1733, Mercier painted a Portrait of 'Frederick, Prince of Wales, playing a violoncello, and his Sisters'. National Portrait Gallery, London. There is an alternative version of the painting in the Royal Collection. In the painting 'The Sense of Hearing', 1744, women are playing violin, violoncello, harpsichord, and flute in theYale Center for British Art.[6]
Mercier lost favour at Court and was replaced as principal painter to Frederick Prince of Wales byJohn Ellys on October 7, 1736.[7] He 'went into the country' in 1736/7 and took rooms inCovent Garden, London.[8] In 1739 he relocated toYork, where he focused on 'fancy' pictures concerned with domestic virtue[9] and also practised portrait painting for over ten years, before returning to London in July 1751. In 1752, Mercier went toPortugal at the request of several English merchants along with his family. He did not long remain there, however, but came back to London, where he died in 1760.
John Faber the Younger also engraved six plates of "Rural Life" after Mercier,[10] and several other subjects of his have survived him.
In August 2016, Mercier's paintingPortrait of a Lady (1744) was one of the subjects for episode 19 in the 5th series of theBBC Television seriesFake or Fortune?[11]
Mercier's daughterCharlotte was also an artist in her early life, before turning to a life of dissolution and dying in theSt James Workhouse two years after her father's death.[12]
^Waterhouse 1952, p. 127: "Never a first-rate artist, he had a flair for novelty in the French manner, and he seems not only to have been responsible for the introduction of the French genre style into English painting, but to have played a considerable part in popularising the 'conversation piece'";Eidelberg 2013: "Philippe Mercier (c. 1689-1760) looms large in the history of English eighteenth-century art. One of the first practitioners of the new rococo style, Mercier’s genre subjects and portraits provided the foundation for William Hogarth and the next generation of English artists."
^Vertue 1934, p. 37: "Mr. P. Merciere. painter Born at Berlin, of French extraction."Walpole 1879, p. 703, give the painter's age at his death as seventy-one. From Walpole's account,Ingamells & Raines 1976–1978, pp. 1, 8 n. 1, andIngamells 1996, p. 147, suggest that Mercier was the Pierre-Phillipe Mercier born in 1689 to Pierre Mercier in Berlin; however, it is noted that a Phillipe Mercier, also the son of a Huguenot tapestry-worker in Berlin, was born in 1691.
^page 11, Philip Mercier, 1689-1760. An exhibition of paintings and engravings. City Art Gallery, York, 21 June-20 July. Iveagh Bequest, Kenwood, 29 July-28 September, 1969
Vertue, George (1932). "The Note-Books of George Vertue Relating to Artists and Collections in England (II)".The Walpole Society.20. whole issue.JSTORi40086519.
Vertue, George (1934). "The Note-Books of George Vertue Relating to Artists and Collections in England (III)".The Walpole Society.22. whole issue.JSTORi40086509.
Vertue, George (1936). "The Note-Books of George Vertue Relating to Artists and Collections in England (IV)".The Walpole Society.24. whole issue.JSTORi40086511.
Eidelberg, Martin (September 1975). "Watteau Paintings in England in the Early Eighteenth Century".The Burlington Magazine.117 (870):576–583.JSTOR878129.
Eidelberg, Martin (Winter 2006). "Philippe Mercier as a Draftsman".Master Drawings.44 (4):411–449.JSTOR20444473.
Ingamells, John & Raines, Robert (1976–1978). "A Catalogue of the Paintings, Drawings and Etchings of Philip Mercier".The Walpole Society.XLVI:1–70.JSTOR41829356.
Raines, Robert (1967). "Philip Mercier, A Little-known Eighteenth-century Painter".Proceedings of the Huguenot Society of London.21 (2):124–137.doi:10.3828/huguenot.1966.21.02.124.
Einberg, Elizabeth & Egerton, Judy (1988).The Age of Hogarth: British Painters Born 1675–1709 (exhibition catalogue). Vol. II. London: Tate Gallery Collections.ISBN094659080X.
Constans, Claire (1979)."Mercier (Philippe)". In Laclotte, Michel (ed.).Petit Larousse de la Peinture. Vol. 2. Paris: Larousse. p. 1181.ISBN2-03-020149-9.
Hopkinson, Martin (2016). "Mercier, Philippe (Philip, irrtümlich Pierre)". In Beyer, Andreas; Savoy, Bénédicte & Tegethoff, Wolf (eds.).Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon. Vol. 89. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter. pp. 136–137.ISBN978-3-11-023255-4.OCLC933756744.
Ingamells, John (1996)."Mercier, Philip". In Turner, Jane (ed.).The Dictionary of Art. Vol. 21. New York: Grove's Dictionaries. pp. 147–149.ISBN1-884446-00-0 – via the Internet Archive.
Portalis, Roger; Béraldi, Henri (1882). "Mercier (Pierre)".Les graveurs du dix-huitième siècle [Engravers of the Eighteenth Century] (in French). Vol. 3 (pt. 1). Paris: D. Morgand et C. Fatout. p. 82.OCLC1050261298 – via the Internet Archive.
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