01 work, PORTRAIT OF A LADY, Philippe Mercier's Portrait of Lady Mary Watson Wentworth, with Footnotes #195

Philippe Mercier (Berlin 1689-1760 London)

Portrait of Lady Mary Watson Wentworth

Oil on canvas

76.2 x 63.2cm (30 x 24 7/8in)

Private collection

Sold for £4,462.50 on April 2022

Mary Watson-Wentworth, Marchioness of Rockingham (née Liddell, later Bright; 1735 – 19 December 1804) was the wife of Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, who was prime minister of Great Britain in 1782 and again from 1765 to 1766.

Born c. 1735 in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, England, she was the only child and heiress of Thomas Liddell, Lord of the Manor of Ecclesall, South Yorkshire, and Margaret Norton. She and her father were both born with the surname Liddell, but her father took the surname Bright when he inherited Badsworth Hall from his father John Bright.

On 26 February, 1752, Lady Liddell married Whig politician Charles Watson-Wentworth.[They were married until Watson-Wentworth's death on 1 July 1782. More on Mary Watson-Wentworth

Philippe Mercier (1689 – 18 July 1760) was an artist of French Huguenot descent from the German realm of Brandenburg-Prussia, usually defined to French school. 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.

Mercier was born in Berlin. He studied painting at the Akademie der Wissenschaften of Berlin and later under Antoine Pesne, who had arrived in Berlin in 1710. Later, he travelled in Italy and France before arriving in London—"recommended by the Court at Hannover"—probably in 1716. He married in London in 1719 and lived in Leicester Fields.

He was appointed principal painter and librarian to the Prince and Princess of Wales at their independent establishment in Leicester Fields, and while he was in favour he painted various portraits of royalty, and no doubt many of the nobility and gentry

Mercier became involved in a scandal of some sort and he lost favour. He left London around 1740 and settled in York, where he practised portrait painting for over ten years, before returning to London in 1751. In 1752, Mercier went to Portugal at the request of several English merchants. He did not long remain there, however, but came back to London, where he died in 1760. More on Philippe Mercier

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