James Parmentier (1658 – 2 December 1730), also known as Jacques Parmentier was a French painter who spent much of his career in England, partly in London and partly in Yorkshire.

Life

Parmentier was born in France in 1658. He initially studied art under his uncle,

Sébastien Bourdon Sébastien Bourdon (2 February 1616 – 8 May 1671) was a French painter and engraver. His ''chef d'œuvre'' is ''The Crucifixion of St. Peter'' made for the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris, Notre Dame. Biography Bourdon was born i ...

, who died in 1671. After some further instruction from another relation, Parmentier went to England in September 1676, to work under the decorative painter Charles de La Fosse, who was then painting the ceilings at Montagu House in Bloomsbury. He came to the attention of William III, who sent him to work at his palace of Het Loo in Holland, but his employment there came to a premature end following a dispute with

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, then surveyor of the royal palaces in Holland. While in the Netherlands Parmentier painted the ceiling and two chimney-pieces in the chief room of the royal palace at

Binnenhof The Binnenhof (; en, Inner Court) is a complex of buildings in the city centre of The Hague, Netherlands, next to the Hofvijver lake. It houses the meeting place of both houses of the States General of the Netherlands, as well as the Ministr ...

. He was a member of the guild of St Luke at The Hague, becoming a master on 1 December 1698.

Charles de Marquetel de Saint-Evremond by Jacques Parmentier

Parmentier returned to London, but unable to find sufficient patronage there, he accepted an invitation to go to Yorkshire, where he painted many portraits. In 1711 he was paid £50 to paint an altarpiece showing the Last Supper for the church of the Holy Trinity Church at

Hull Hull may refer to: Structures * Chassis, of an armored fighting vehicle * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a ship * Submarine hull Mathematics * Affine hull, in affi ...

. It survives, although in a mutilated condition. He also executed a ceiling painting on the theme of Moses receiving the law for St. Peter's Church at Leeds, and decorated staircases at Worksop Manor for the Duke of Norfolk, and at the house of John Atkinson, a former mayor of Leeds. Following the death of

Louis Laguerre Louis Laguerre (1663 – 20 April 1721) was a French decorative painter mainly working in England. Born in Versailles in 1663 and trained at the Paris Academy under Charles Le Brun, he came to England in 1683, where he first worked with Anton ...

in 1721 Parmentier returned to London, hoping to succeed to his practice as a decorative painter. During this London sojourn he became a member of a masonic music club called the ''Philo-musicae et -architecturae societas Apollini'', which met at the

Queen's Head tavern The Queen's Head Tavern (later the Apollo Tavern) was located on Fleet Street to the east of the Temple Bar in London. It was already established in 1682 when it is mentioned in the diary of Narcissus Luttrell: "The 2nd, in the morning early, a ...

Fleet Street Fleet Street is a major street mostly in the City of London. It runs west to east from Temple Bar at the boundary with the City of Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the London Wall and the River Fleet from which the street was na ...

near Temple Bar. Parmentier may have been hoping that freemasonry might provide a viable source of patronage for him, and it is known that he did get some work through the club, as its minute-book records that when the tavern changed its name to the Apollo tavern in recognition of its musical clientele, Parmentier painted the new sign. He did not, however, achieve his hoped-for success in London, and was on the point of returning to the Netherlands, where he had been invited to spend the rest of his life with relatives at Amsterdam, when he died on 2 December 1730. He was buried in

St Paul's, Covent Garden St Paul's Church is a Church of England parish church located in Bedford Street, Covent Garden, central London. It was designed by Inigo Jones as part of a commission for the 4th Earl of Bedford in 1631 to create "houses and buildings fit ...

. The DNB cites as references Vertue's Diaries (Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 23076); Redgrave's ''Dictionary of Artists''; Dussieux's Artistes Français à l'Etranger''; and Obreen's ''Archief voor Nederlandsche Kunstgeschiedenis'', v. 139. His paintings of Charles II and of Charles de Marquetel de Saint-Evremond are in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London; another of St Evremond (1701) is at Knole.

References

Sources

External links

Images of works b
James Parmentier
at the National Portrait Gallery, London {{DEFAULTSORT:Parmentier, James French painters 1658 births 1730 deaths