Charlotte Mercier (1738–1762) was a French painter and printmaker active in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. Mercier, born in London, was the daughter of the artist

Philippe Mercier Philippe Mercier (also spelled Philip Mercier; 1689 – 18 July 1760) was an artist of French Huguenot descent from the German realm of Brandenburg-Prussia (later Kingdom of Prussia), usually defined to French school. Active in England for mos ...

, with whom she studied; a 1738 record of her baptism records her parents' names as Philip and Dorothy. She is said to have turned to a dissolute life after some early success as an artist. An appeal from her mother was read to the Society of Artists in 1761, but she nevertheless died in the

St James Workhouse The St James Workhouse opened in 1725 on Poland Street in the Soho area of London, England, in what was then the parish of Westminster St James, and continued well into the nineteenth century. Higginbotham conjectured that the infirmary at St Ja ...

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...

the following year.Profile of Claude Mercier
in the ''Dictionary of Pastellists Before 1800''. Two portraits, of ''Madeleine Marie Agathe Renée de la Bigotière de Perchambault'' and of ''Olivier-Joseph Le Gonidec'', are in the collection of the

National Museum of Women in the Arts The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA), located in Washington, D.C., is "the first museum in the world solely dedicated" to championing women through the arts. NMWA was incorporated in 1981 by Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay. Since openin ...

; both are pastels, and are dated 1757. A

mezzotint Mezzotint is a monochrome printmaking process of the '' intaglio'' family. It was the first printing process that yielded half-tones without using line- or dot-based techniques like hatching, cross-hatching or stipple. Mezzotint achieves tonali ...

after her father, ''Miss Playing with Cup and Ball'', is owned by the

National Portrait Gallery, London The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London housing a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. It was arguably the first national public gallery dedicated to portraits in the world when it ...

, which also owns a mezzotint portrait of her, after another of her father's works, by

James Macardell James MacArdell (1729?–1765) was an Irish mezzotinter. Life He was born in Cow Lane (later Greek Street), Dublin, around 1729. He learnt mezzotint-engraving from John Brooks. When Brooks moved to London in 1746, MacArdell and other pupils foll ...

, published in 1756. Mercier is sometimes confused with the artist Claude Mercier, also active as a pastellist.

References

1738 births 1762 deaths English women painters French women painters 18th-century English painters 18th-century French painters 18th-century English women artists 18th-century French women artists English engravers French engravers Women engravers 18th-century engravers Painters from London Pastel artists French women printmakers {{Engraver-stub