Old Master Paintings

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Lot 82
  • 82

Philip Mercier

Estimate
30,000 - 50,000 USD
bidding is closed

Description

  • Philip Mercier
  • Portrait of Three Children in a Landscape

  • full-length, a seated girl at center looking at herself in a mirror while a kneeling boy at right crowns her with a wreath of flowers, another girl standing behind picking flowers from a vine, a spaniel at left
    signed with monogram lower right PM (PM in ligature)

  • oil on canvas

Condition

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This canvas has been lined and the lining is reasonably successful. The paint layer is most likely slightly dirty and the restorations are not very accurate. Under ultraviolet light there are restorations visible in the face and neck of all three children. Above the boy there are restorations in the trees and some isolated spots here and there. Elsewhere there are restorations in the background, landscape and left wrist of the seated girl. These restorations almost all seem to address old paint loss rather than any abrasion. There is a freshness to the palette which is easy to recognize and the picture is in reasonable condition.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Catalogue Note

This painting is almost identical to another published depiction of the same subject by Philip Mercier, datable to circa 1740-1745.  Virtually the only differences in the two compositions are the breed of dog (here a spotted spaniel, in the other version, a pug), the color of the seated girl's dress (here a light purple, in the other a 'deep green-yellow'), and the pose and features of the boy.  The paintings are so close, in fact, that Ingamells and Raines, in their catalogue of the works of Philip Mercier, conflated the two provenances, publishing and illustrating the other version and not the present, which Ingamells had not seen.1 

 

 

1.  See, J. Ingamells and R. Raines, "A Catalogue of the Paintings, Drawings, and Etchings of Philip Mercier," in Walpole Society, vol. XVLI, 1976-78, p. 55, cat. no. 235; and R. Raines and J. Ingamells, Philip Mercier 1689 - 1760, An Exhibition of Paintings and Engravings, City Art Gallery, York 1969, exhibition catalogue, cat. no. 60, reproduced.