Marcellus Laroon

Self-portrait of Marcellus Laroon, ca. 1700

Marcellus Laroon or Lauron, the elder (1653–1702) was a Dutch painter and engraver, active in England.

Life

He was born at The Hague, the son of Marcellus Lauron, a painter of French extraction who settled in the Netherlands. The son Marcellus migrated in early life to England, where he was usually styled Laroon, and lived for many years in Yorkshire. He told George Vertue that he had seen Rembrandt at Kingston upon Hull in 1661.

Laroon lived, on coming to London, in Bow Street, Covent Garden. He died of consumption at Richmond, Surrey on 11 March 1702, and was buried there. He had a collection of pictures, which was sold by auction by his son Marcellus Laroon the Younger on 24 February 1725.

Works

The Merry Milk Maid, engraving by John Savage after Laroon.

Laroon became known for small portraits and conversation pieces. He also painted numerous small pictures, on humorous or free subjects, in the style of Egbert van Heemskerk, some of which were engraved in mezzotint by Isaac Beckett and John Smith. He also etched and engraved in mezzotint similar plates himself. Laroon is know best known by the drawings he made of The Cryes of London, which were engraved by John Savage,^[1] and published by Pierce Tempest.

Laroon also drew the illustrations to a book on fencing, and the procession at the coronation of William III and Mary in 1689. He was frequently employed to paint draperies for Sir Godfrey Kneller, and was well known as a copyist. He painted portraits of Queen Mary (engraved in mezzotint by Robert Williams), Caius Gabriel Cibber the sculptor, and others; his self-portrait by himself showed the scars resulting from injuries received in a street quarrel. Some drawings by him went to the print room in the British Museum.

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Family

He married the daughter of Jeremiah Keene, builder, of Little Sutton, near Chiswick, by whom he had a large family, including three sons, who were brought up in his profession.

References

•  "Laroon, Marcellus". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. 

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Laroon, Marcellus". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. 

Notes