John Phillip

Spanish Musicians with Dancing Girl- British Victorian art oil painting portrait

1847

John Phillip is a Scottish painter, active mainly in London. Phillip's early works tended to depict pious Scottish families. In 1851, he visited Spain, after he was advised to travel to southern Europe for his health. Thereafter he concentrated on Spanish subjects. The first of these, The Letter Writer, Seville, displayed the influence of Pre-Raphaelitism, a movement he had previously opposed, along with most other members of The Clique, and despite his friendship with Millais, one of the Clique’s leaders. He was so influenced by his travels that he advised other artists to do the same. Some artists, such as Edwin Long, took this advice and were similarly inspired. In the late 1850s and 1860s Phillip's style became much broader and more painterly, in line with Millais's late work. Phillip's two most important paintings in these years were The Early Career of Murillo (1864) and La Gloria (1865, National Gallery of Scotland). The first depicted the young Murillo drawing his art from Spanish street-life, and the second portrayed a Spanish wake for a dead child. In 1858, Phillip was commissioned to paint the wedding of Princess Royal Victoria to Prince Frederick William of Prussia, later German Emperor Frederick III. Phillip married Richard Dadd's sister. Like her brother she became insane. Phillip died of a stroke while visiting William Powell Frith in Kensington. Phillip's self-portrait, The Evil Eye, commissioned by his close friend Patrick Allan-Fraser, is in Hospitalfield House in Arbroath, along with portraits of other members of The Clique.