Background
Parmentier was born in France in 1658.
Parmentier was born in France in 1658.
He initially studied art under his uncle, Sébastien Bourdon, who died in 1671.
After some further instruction from another relation, Parmentier went to England in September 1676, to work under the decorative painter Charles de Louisiana Fosse, who was then painting the ceilings at Montagu House in Bloomsbury. He came to the attention of William III, who sent him to work at his palace of Het Loo in Holland, but his employment there came to a premature end following a dispute with Daniel Marot, then surveyor of the royal palaces in Holland. While in the Netherlands Parmentier painted the ceiling and two chimney-pieces in the chief room of the royal palace at Binnenhof.
Parmentier returned to London, but unable to find sufficient patronage there, he accepted an invitation to go to Yorkshire, where he painted many portraits.
In 1711 he was paid £50 to paint an altarpiece showing the Last Supper for the church of the Holy Trinity Church at Hull. lieutenant survives, although in a mutilated condition.
He also executed a ceiling painting on the theme of Moses receiving the law for Saint Peter"s Church at Leeds, and decorated staircases at Worksop Manor for the Duke of Norfolk, and at the house of John Atkinson, a former mayor of Leeds. Following the death of Louis Laguerre in 1721 Parmentier returned to London, hoping to succeed to his practice as a decorative painter.
He was buried in Street Paul"s, Covent Garden.
His paintings of Charles II and of Charles de Marquetel de Saint-Evremond are in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London. Another of Street Evremond (1701) is at Knole.
He was a member of the guild of Street Luke at The Hague, becoming a master on 1 December 1698.