Philippe Mercier (1689 – 1760)

• Was a French Huguenot descent from the German realm of Brandenburg-Prussia.
• Mercier was born c. 1689–1691 in Berlin, the son of Pierre Mercier, a Huguenot tapestry-worker.
• He studied painting at the Akademie der Wissenschaften of Berlin and later under Antoine Pesne.
• Later, he travelled in Italy and France before arriving in London, 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.

• Mercier lost favour at Court and was replaced as principal painter to Frederick Prince of Wales by John Ellys on 7 October 1736.

• In 1739 he relocated to York, where he focused on 'fancy' pictures concerned with domestic virtue.

• Mercier died in London in 1760. 

• Mercier's daughter Charlotte was also an artist in her early life.

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