Philippe Mercier | |
|---|---|
 John Faber the Younger, Philip Mercier, 1735, mezzotint after Mercier's untraced self-portrait, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. | |
| Born | 1689 |
| Died | July 18, 1760 (aged 70–71) |
| Education | Antoine Pesne |
| Known for | Painting and etching |
| Movement | Rococo |
| Patron(s) | Frederick, Prince of Wales |
Philippe Mercier (also spelled Philip Mercier; 1689 – 18 July 1760) was an artist of French Huguenot descent from the German realm of Brandenburg-Prussia (later Kingdom of Prussia), usually defined to French school.[1] Active in England for most of his working life, Mercier is considered one of the first practitioners of the Rococo style, and is credited with influencing a new generation of 18th-century English artists.[2]
- ^ Bataille 1930, p. 409, Bénézit 2006, p. 340, Ingamells 1996, p. 147, and Hopkinson 2016, p. 136, define Mercier as a painter of French school.
- ^ 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."