Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 45.djvu/225

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Phillips
217
Phillips

painted in exchange for his own bust, and in 1819 that of the poet Crabbe, also painted for John Murray.

In 1825 he was elected professor of painting in the Royal Academy, and, in order to qualify himself for his duties, visited Italy and Rome in company with William Hilton, R.A., and also Sir David Wilkie, whom they met in Florence. He resigned the professorship in 1832, and in 1833 published his ‘Lectures on the History and Principles of Painting,’ reviewed by Allan Cunningham in the ‘Athenæum’ for 9 Nov. 1833.

Phillips's finest works are at Alnwick Castle, at Petworth, and in the possession of Mr. John Murray of Albemarle Street. The last-named possesses his portraits of Lord Byron, one of his best works, Crabbe, Sir Walter Scott, Southey, Campbell, Coleridge, Hallam, Mrs. Somerville, Sir Edward Parry, Sir John Franklin, Major Denham, the African traveller, and Captain Clapperton. Besides these he painted two portraits of Sir David Wilkie, one of which he presented to the National Gallery, and the other is now in the National Gallery of Scotland; also, the Duke of York for the town-hall, Liverpool, Dean Buckland, Sir Humphry Davy, Samuel Rogers (now at Britwell Court), Michael Faraday (engraved in mezzotint by Henry Cousins), Dr. Dalton, and a head of Napoleon I (now at Petworth), painted in Paris in 1802, although not from actual sittings, yet with the connivance of the Empress Josephine, who afforded him opportunities of observing the First Consul while at dinner. His own portrait, exhibited in 1844, was one of his latest works. Phillips wrote many occasional essays on the fine arts, especially for Rees's ‘Cyclopædia,’ and also a memoir of William Hogarth for John Nichols's edition of that artist's ‘Works,’ 1808–17. He was a fellow of the Royal Society and of the Society of Antiquaries. He was also, with Chantrey, Turner, Robertson, and others, one of the founders of the Artists' General Benevolent Institution.

Phillips died at 8 George Street, Hanover Square, London, on 20 April 1845, and was interred in the burial-ground of St. John's Wood chapel. He married Miss Elizabeth Fraser of Fairfield, near Inverness, a lady whose beauty and accomplishments were commended by Crabbe in his ‘London Journal.’ They had two daughters and two sons, the elder of whom, Joseph Scott Phillips, became a major in the Bengal artillery, and died at Wimbledon, Surrey, on 18 Dec. 1884, aged 72.

His younger son, Henry Wyndham Phillips (1820–1868), born in 1820, was a pupil of his father. He also adopted portrait-painting as his profession, and exhibited first at the Royal Academy in 1838. Between 1845 and 1849 he painted a few scriptural subjects which he sent to the British Institution, but his works were chiefly portraits. Among them were those of Charles Kean as Louis XI, painted for the Garrick Club; Dr. William Prout, for the Royal College of Physicians; Robert Stephenson, for the Institution of Civil Engineers; and Nassau William Senior. He was also for thirteen years the energetic secretary of the Artists' General Benevolent Institution, and he held the rank of captain in the Artists' volunteer corps.

He died suddenly at his residence, Hollow Combe, Sydenham, Kent, on 8 Dec. 1868, aged 48. His portrait of Sir Austen Henry Layard has been engraved in mezzotint by Samuel W. Reynolds; ‘The Magdalen’ has been engraved by George Zobel, and ‘Dreamy Thoughts’ by W. J. Edwards.

[Athenæum, 1845, p. 417, reprinted in Gent. Mag. 1845, ii. 654–7; Sandby's Hist. of the Royal Academy of Arts, 1862, i. 331–4; Royal Acad. Exhibition Catalogues, 1792–1846; Bryan's Dict. of Painters and Engravers, ed. Graves and Armstrong, 1886–9, ii. 284; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists of the English School, 1878. For the son: Art Journal, 1869, p. 29; Athenæum, 1868, ii. 802; Times, 10 Dec. 1868; Royal Acad. Exhibition Catalogues, 1838–68; British Institution Exhibition Catalogues (Living Artists), 1845–9.]

R. E. G.


PHILLIPS, THOMAS (1760–1851), surgeon and benefactor of Welsh education, was born in London on 6 July 1760, and was the son of Thomas Phillips, of the excise department, a Welshman from Llandegley in Radnorshire. He went to school at Kempston in Bedfordshire, and was apprenticed to an apothecary at Hay in Breconshire. He afterwards studied surgery under John Hunter, and became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons. In 1780 he entered the medical service of the royal navy, serving first as surgeon's mate of the Danae frigate, and afterwards as surgeon of the Hind. In 1782 he entered the service of the East India Company, and went to Calcutta. In 1796 he was made inspector of hospitals in the new colony of Botany Bay. In 1798, when returning to England on leave, he was captured in the Channel by a French privateer, but liberated after being taken to Bordeaux. In 1800 he married Althea Edwards, daughter of the rector of Cusop, near Hay, and in 1802 he returned to India, where he became superintendent, surgeon, and finally a member of the Cal-