A Girl with a Patch Box
Philippe Mercier (Berlin 1689 – London 1760)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1760
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
737 x 610 mm (29 x 24 in)
Order this imageCollection
Wimpole, Cambridgeshire
NT 207806
Caption
This is one of a pair of pictures at Wimpole, which possibly come from a set of four, representing the Senses. It was always thought that the girl was holding a snuff box, but it appears that she is instead taking a patch from a patch box. This would suggest that she does not personify ‘Smell’, as had always been thought. Her head-dress does not seem to fit in with the rest of her costume, and its present appearance could be the result of a misinformed restoration.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, A Girl with a Patch Box, by Philippe Mercier (Berlin 1689 – London 1760). 1760.
Provenance
Anon sale, Christie's, 12th February 1954, lot 83 (with companion), bought West and 28th June 1957, lot 66, bought by Kelso who billed Mrs Bambridge, 9/10/57(with 10 % commission)(pendant to WIM/P/40); bequeathed by Elsie Kipling, Mrs George Bambridge (1896 - 1976), daughter of Rudyard Kipling, to the National Trust together with Wimpole Hall, all its contents and an estate of 3,000 acres
Credit line
Wimpole Hall, The Bambridge Collection (National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
Verso: Christie's stencil 315 and cahlak inscription: June 28. 57
Makers and roles
Philippe Mercier (Berlin 1689 – London 1760)
References
Ingamells & Raines 1978 John Ingamells & Robert Raines, ‘A Catalogue of the Paintings, Drawings and Etchings of Philip Mercier’, The Walpole Society, vol.XLVI, 1978, p. 42, no. 167