Marcellus Laroon Artwork valuations, appraisals and auction estimates

Marcellus Laroon the Younger (2 April 1679 – 1 June 1772) was an English painter and draftsman of French origin. He specialized in social genre scenes and frequented the world of actors and painters around Covent Garden in London. Read the full biography

Marcellus Laroon the Younger (2 April 1679 – 1 June 1772) was an English painter and draftsman of French origin. He specialized in social genre scenes and frequented the world of actors and painters around Covent Garden in London. George Vertue, a contemporary who knew him well, said that he painted for pleasure rather than for profit. Laroon was born in Chiswick, Middlesex. His father, Marcellus Laroon the Elder, was a painter and printmaker of Dutch origin and brought his son to England while he was a child. In 1707 he joined the army, taking part in campaigns in Flanders, Spain and Scotland. During a break from military life (c. 1712-1715) he joined the Rose and Crown Club in London and was a pupil of Godfrey Kneller at the Academy of Painting and Drawing. Most of Laroon's paintings date from his retirement from the army, in the late 1750s Laroon settled in Oxford, where he died in 1772.