Philippe Mercier, Gallant Scene, 1700s, Oil on Canvas, Framed

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Description

An 18th century painting of a gallant scene in a park.
Attributed with seal of painter's studio to Philippe Mercier … Read more An 18th century painting of a gallant scene in a park.
Attributed with seal of painter's studio to Philippe Mercier (1689 to 1760) from the circle of the french painter

Nicolas Lancret, a follower of the École of Antoine Watteau.

Oil on canvas, in a fine carved giltwood frame.

Frame:
Width: 16,53 in (42 cm)
Depth: 14,56 in (37 cm)
Canvas:
Width: 12,99 in (33 cm)
Depth: 10,62 in (27 cm)

Philippe Mercier (Berlin 1689 – London 1760) born in Berlin and studied at the Berlin Akademie with Antoine Pesne before traveling to Italy and France. By the time he arrived in London in 1716, had considerable familiarity with the work of contemporary French painters, particularly Watteau and his sophisticated style. Soon won Watteau patronage in court circles.
In 1726 painted two important group portraits that can be seen as an introduction to English art - Baron Schultz and his friends (1725, Tate Gallery, London) and Viscount Tyrconnel with his family (1725-6, private collection).
In 1729, Mercier was appointed Chief Painter to Frederick, Prince of Wales, and, a year later, keeper of his library, but they seem to have fallen away in the latter half of the 1730s, when he retired to the country, where painted several portraits for the Samwell family of Upton, Northants, and Hesilriges of Noseley, Warwicks.
In 1739 Mercier moved to York, where he built up a considerable portrait practice among
the leading families in the county. It was at this time that he made his greatest contribution to British painting, introducing and developing the 'extravagant image', a genre derived from Chardin as well as Watteau and 17th-century Dutch genre painting.
Described by George Vertue as "bit of some conversational figures as large as life: vain plaisant Fantasies and habits: mixed modes very well done – and very approved", such works were frequently recorded and clearly enjoyed considerable success.
Painted in the second half of the 1730s, the present work, An Allegory of Taste, is a fine example of this way of painting and its Rococo sensibility reveals the artist's affinities with contemporary French art.
Mercier would return to the theme of the five senses in a series of large canvases executed in the mid-1740s Mellon Collection, Yale Center for British Art.
Although later works are more complex in their treatment of subjects, they lack the charm and lightness of handling encountered in the present composition.


Perfect for anchoring a maximalist gallery wall yet equally striking as a stand-alone accent piece.

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