Monday 8 June 2015

Phillippe Mercier - Busts in the PaintingsBusts

Busts and Statues in paintings by Phillippe Mercier (1689 - 1760).
Dimensions: 74.5 by 61.5 cm.
Sold Lot 161, Sotheby's 27 November 2003.


Description: SIGNED AND DATED (MAKER'S MARKS)
signed in monogram l.r.: PM
 
This painting dates from circa 1745. It was painted in York where the artist had settled in 1739, concentrating his efforts on fancy pictures. Mercier's stay in York was very productive, working for important patrons such as the Duke of Leeds, Sir Robert Hildyard and Thomas Worsley, and was able to take 'a convenient sash'd house with a large garden, Coach-house, and Stable' within the precincts of York Cathedral.
Provenance: G.M. Scott, by whose executors sold, Christie's, 28th November 1838, lot 9, bt. by Drummond for £88-4-0;

W. Grindlay, sale, Christie's, 8th January 1887, lot 70.
   Literature: John Ingamells and Robert Raines, 'A Catalogue of the Paintings, Drawings and Etchings of Philip Mercier', Walpole Society, 1978, Vol.XLVI, p.54, no.231; illustrated plate 10c
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A Boy drawing from the Antique, Phillipe Mercier. c 1745.

Oil on Canvas -75.5 x 61.8 cm
 Cannons Hall Museum, Barnsley Museum Services, Yorkshire.

The bust appears to be the same as in the previous painting suggesting perhaps that it was a personal possession of Mercier