Yale Center for British Art

Creator:

Philippe Mercier, 1691–1760, Franco-German, active in Britain (from 1716)

Title:

The Sense of Taste

Date:

1744 to 1747

Materials & Techniques:

Oil on canvas

Dimensions:

52 x 60 1/2 inches (132.1 x 153.7 cm)

Credit Line:

Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection

Copyright Status:

Public Domain

Accession Number:

B1974.3.18

Classification:

Paintings

Collection:

Paintings and Sculpture

Subject Terms:

Currently On View:

Not on view

Exhibition History:

Savour: Food Culture in the Age of Enlightenment (Gardiner Museum, 2019-10-10 - 2020-01-12)

Savour: Food Culture in the Age of Enlightenment (Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, 2020-02-29 - 2021-01-03)

Champagne ! (Musee Beaux Arts de la ville de Reims, 2012-12-11 - 2013-05-26)

Publications:

1747, Richardson's Sale, Foundling Hospital dinner, Mercier, The Star, vertue III, 1933-34, p. 135, N12 W35 A1 + OVERSIZE (YCBA)

David Bindman, The Image of the Black in Western Art : From the " Age of Discovery" to the Age of Abolition, , vol. 3, part 3, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 2010, pp. 140,141, fig. 132, N8217.B535 I42 2010+ (YCBA) Citations are to Vol. 3, Part 3

Christie's Advertisement of Sale on Friday, June 21, 1974, Apollo, v. 99, no. 148, June 1974, p. 39, N1 A54 + (YCBA)

Christie's Sale Catalogue : Important English Pictures : 21 June 1974, Christie's, June 21, 1974, p. 47, No. 125, pl. 125, Sales Catalogues (YCBA)

Christie's (UK), Christie's sale catalogue : Important English Drawings and Watercolours . 24 March 1987, Christie's, 1987, X348 C46 I. 1987/Mar. 24 (LSF - MUDD)

Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 158-159, N590.2 .A83 (YCBA)

John Ingamells, A Catalogue of the Paintings, Drawings, and Etchings of Philip Mercier, Volume of the Walpole Society, vol. 46, Walpole Society, 1976-8, pp. 5, 62, no. 267, pl. 6d, N12 W35 +A1 OVERSIZE (YCBA)

David Liot, Les arts de l'effervescence : champagne, exposition, Reims, Muse´e des beaux-arts, 14 de´cembre 2012-26 mai 2013 organise´e par le Muse´e d'Orsay , Somogy, Paris, 2012, pp. 40, 42-43, 68, 94, 210, Cat. no. 18, N8262 .A77 2012 OVERSIZE (YCBA)

Temi Odumosu, The crying child : on colonial archives, digitization, and ethics of care in the cultural commons, Current anthropology, 61, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Ill., p. S294, fig. 5, Available Online

Paul Mellon's Legacy : a passion for British art [large print labels], , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, v. 3, N5220 M552 P381 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA)

Robert Raines, Philip Mercier, 1689-1760, an exhibition of paintings and engravings. , Paul Mellon Foundation for British Art, London, 1969, p. 47, no. 52, NJ18 M5427 R35 (YCBA)

Sense of Taste, Apollo, June 1974, p. 39, N1 A54 + (YCBA)

Sotheby's sale catalogue : British Paintings 1500-1850 : 13 July 1988, Sotheby's, London, July 13, 1988, p. 129, 132-33, lot 88, Auction Catalogues (YCBA)

Jennifer Ullman, Philippe Mercier and The five senses, Yale Center for British Art. , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1990, V 0099 (YCBA)

Gallery Label:

As in The Sense of Touch, this scene involves two pairs of lovers sitting in an open loggia, attended by a black page. The couple on the right are the merrier of the two, firmly in charge of the wine bottles, and filling glasses. The couple on the left appear more restrained, though the young lady's glass is being filled noisily. A third couple has vanished-there are six ices, and a discarded napkin at the head of the table. A silver dish of peaches and figs temptingly occupies the foreground. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2005

Link:

https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:179