Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 45.djvu/199

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brief period no fewer than twenty-five important pictures, twenty smaller subjects, besides forty-five sketches in water-colours, and many pencil drawings, were begun, and most of the paintings were afterwards completed; for Phillip had now obtained full command of his brush, and worked with a decision and a speed that have been rarely surpassed. The productions of this period include several spirited and telling copies from the works of Velasquez, made in Madrid. It was to this visit to Spain that Phillip's masterpiece, ‘La Gloria,’ shown in the academy in 1864, is due. This great work depicts the strange Spanish custom of celebrating the death of an infant and her entrance into paradise with dancing and music; and, while it shows considerable dramatic feeling in its contrasts between the gaiety of the merry-makers, the silent grief of the mother, and the still, white face of the infant, it is still more remarkable as a singularly powerful example of splendid handling and gorgeous colouring. A small picture, ‘Il Cigarrillo,’ painted in the same year, in the delicate refinement of its green, white, and rosy tones, and in its exquisite rendering of light, marks the high-water mark of the artist's technique. Another exquisite technical triumph is ‘La Bomba,’ a girl pouring out wine for two muleteers, painted in 1862–3. In 1863 Phillip had completed and exhibited a work of a very different class, ‘House of Commons, 1860, during the Debate on the French Treaty,’ a work firmly handled, and successful in the portraiture that it contains; but in 1865 there appeared another important Spanish subject, ‘The Early Career of Murillo,’ who is depicted sketching in the fair at Seville.

In 1866 Phillip made his last visit to the continent, residing in Rome and at Florence, where he devoted himself to the study of Titian in the Pitti Palace; but soon after his return he was struck down by paralysis, in the house of Mr. W. P. Frith, R.S., and he died at Campden Hill, Kensington, 27 Feb. 1867.

In the London international exhibition of 1873 over two hundred of his works were included, the catalogue being compiled by his friend and executor Mr. T. Oldham Barlow, who had engraved so many of them, and who caused photographs to be taken from fifty-six of the works left unfinished in his studio, prints of which are in the possession of the British Museum and the Royal Academy. Some thirty were shown in the Aberdeen exhibition, and fourteen in the Manchester jubilee exhibition in 1887. In addition to his subject-pictures, Phillip produced many forcible portraits of distinguished persons, including Sir J. E. Millais, R.A., 1843; Richard Ansdell, R.A., 1856; Samuel Bough, R.S.A., 1856; T. Oldham Barlow, A.R.A., 1856; the prince consort, 1858; and the Princess Beatrice, 1860. He is represented in the National Gallery of Scotland by portraits of W. B. Johnstone, R.S.A., and his wife, by eight studies and unfinished works in oils and water-colours, and by his copy of ‘The Surrender of Breda’ by Velasquez; and in the schools of the Royal Academy, London, by copies of the same artist's ‘Velasquez painting the Infanta,’ and of his portrait known as ‘Alonso Cano,’ which was purchased for 1,080l. at his sale. Phillip frequently painted his own portrait, but the best and latest likeness is that executed in 1867 by Mr. C. E. Cundell. John Thomas produced a bust in marble in 1860.

[Athenæum, 1867, pp. 294, 323–4, 356; Art Journal, 1867, pp. 127, 153, 157; Leisure Hour, xvii. 629; Clement and Hutton's Artists of the Nineteenth Century; Ruskin's Academy Notes, 1855; Palgrave's Essays on Art; Cunningham's Lives of the Painters, ed. Heaton, 1880; Barlow's Catalogue of Phillip's Works in International Exhibition of 1873; Armstrong's Scottish Painters; Redgrave's Dictionary; Bryan's Dict. of Painters and Engravers, ed. Graves and Armstrong; Royal Academy Catalogues.]

J. M. G.

PHILLIP, WILLIAM (fl. 1600), translator, made several translations, chiefly of books of travel, from the Dutch. His work is not very accurate. The titles of his books, all of which are rare, are: 1. ‘The Pathway to Knowledge, written in Dutch, and translated into English,’ London, 1596, 4to. 2. ‘The Description of a Voyage made by certaine Ships of Holland into the East Indies, with their Adventures and Successe; together with the Description of the Countries, Townes, and Inhabitants of the same: who set forth on the Second of April, 1595, and returned on the 14 of August, 1597,’ London, 1598, 4to, dedicated to Sir James Scudamore (Cat. of Grenville Library); reprinted in Hakluyt's ‘Collection’ (vol. v. new edit.), and in ‘Oxford Collection of Voyages and Travels’ (vol. ii.) The original is by Bernardt Langhenez. 3. ‘John Huighen van Linschoten his Discours of Voyages into the East and West Indies. Devided into foure Bookes,’ London, 1598, folio; illustrated with maps, plans, and views copied from the Dutch. 4. ‘A true and perfect Description of three Voyages to the North Pole, performed by the Ships of Holland and Zealand, so strange and wonderfull that the like hath never been heard of before,’ Lon-