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Laroon, Marcellus, the younger
(b Chiswick, nr London, 2 April 1679; d Oxford, 1 June 1772). English painter and draughtsman of French origin. His father was Marcellus Lauron the elder (d 1702), a French portrait painter and copyist who went to England from The Hague. Laroon was brought up in London where he received a liberal education. In 1697–8 he attended a peace conference at Ryswick as a page, in which capacity he also went to Venice for Charles Montagu, 4th Earl of Manchester. In 1698 he returned to London and worked as a singer for Colley Cibber at the Drury Lane Theatre. In 1707 he enlisted in the army, participating in campaigns in Flanders, Spain and Scotland. During a break from military life (c. 1712–15) he joined the Rose and Crown Club in London and worked in Kneller’s Academy, but he did not begin to concentrate on art until his retirement from the army in 1732. He appears to have worked for pleasure rather than profit; besides a large number of drawings he produced pastoral fancy pictures in the French mode as well as scenes from the theatre. His drawings, dating primarily from the 1720s and 1730s, have flickering Rococo lines and tapestry-like compositions. The influence of Antoine Watteau and Philip Mercier can be seen in his Commedia dell’arte Scene (c. 1735; priv. col., see Raines, 1966, fig. 28), a rare English representation of Italian comedy. Laroon carried this Rococo fantasy a step further in works such as A Musical Tea-party and A Dinner Party (both c. 1740; London, Kensington Pal., Royal Col.), which appear to be conversation pieces, although none of the figures is identifiable. He also experimented with genre scenes in the Dutch and Flemish manner; his Village Wedding (n.d.; priv. col., see Raines, 1966, pl. 19) has obvious affinities with the work of David Teniers (ii). Laroon further combined the literal with the imaginary in his scenes of the English stage, such as Henry IV, Part I (1746; priv. col, see Raines, 1966, pl. 34), which may include a portrait of the actor James Quin, then renowned for his portrayal of Falstaff. In the late 1750s Laroon settled in Oxford. From this time he produced mostly crowded and detailed drawings, such as Cudgeling (1770; Oxford, Ashmolean). The sale of his works on 17 March 1775 included several paintings attributed to Watteau.
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