Fancy pictures

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Fancies was a term coined in 1737 by the art critic and historian George Vertue to describe genre scenes that also incorporated invented or imagined elements, or a storyline. He invented in to describe the paintings of Philip Mercier, such as Venetian Girl at a Window or the series The Five Senses. The extended term for the same sub-genre, fancy pictures was invented by Joshua Reynolds to describe paintings with beggar or peasant children produced by Thomas Gainsborough in his final decades.