The Park at Belton, Lincolnshire
attributed to Philippe Mercier (Berlin 1689 – London 1760)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1750
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1130 x 1400 mm
Order this imageCollection
Belton House, Lincolnshire
NT 436156
Caption
This may be the 'Prospect of Belton by Mercier' listed at Tyrconnel's Arlington Street house in 1738. It shows the park and garden more or less as engraved in Vitruvius Britannicus (1717). It is not by a professional view-painter, since numerous inaccuracies show that it was not done on the spot. No other view-painting by Mercier is recorded, and it lacks the sophisticated ease of the ‘Brownlow conversation piece’, which is also at Belton. None the less, the figures do suggest an artist influenced by Watteau, as the young Mercier certainly was, though the landscape is probably by another, less capable hand.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, The Park at Belton, Lincolnshire, attributed to Philippe Mercier (Berlin 1689 – London 1760), circa 1750. The park at Belton showing figures and dogs in the foreground.
Provenance
Purchased with a grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) fromEdward John Peregrine Cust, 7th Baron Brownlow, C. St J. (b.1936) in 1984
Credit line
Belton House, The Brownlow Collection (acquired with the help of the National Heritage Memorial Fund by the National Trust in 1984)
Makers and roles
attributed to Philippe Mercier (Berlin 1689 – London 1760), publisher previously catalogued as attributed to Thomas Smith of Derby (fl.1720 - d. Bristol 1767), publisher