John Phillip (19 April 1817–1867) was a Victorian era Scottish painter best known for his portrayals of Spanish life. He started painting these studies after a vacation to Spain in 1851. He was nicknamed John ‘Spanish’ Phillip.
Born into a poor family in Aberdeen in Scotland, Phillip’s artistic capability was recognised at an early age. Lord Panmure paid for Phillip to become the student of Thomas Musgrave Joy in London briefly in 1836. His education at the Royal Academy of Arts was paid for by Panmure.
While at the academy, Phillip became a enthusiast of The Clique, a society of aspirant artists organised by Richard Dadd. The Clique identified as followers of William Hogarth and David Wilkie. Phillip’s own career was to follow that of fellow-Scot Wilkie categorically closely, beginning with intentionally detailed paintings depicting the lives of Scottish crofters. He moved on to much more broadly painted scenes of Spanish liveliness influenced by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo and Diego Velázquez.
Phillip’s to the fore works tended to depict pious Scots 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 distress of Pre-Raphaelitism, a pursuit he had back opposed, along later than most further members of The Clique, despite his friendship considering Millais, one of its leaders. He was correspondingly influenced by his travels that he advised supplementary artists to attain 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 youthful Murillo drawing his art from Spanish street-life; the second portrayed a Spanish wake for a dead child. Phillip was commissioned to paint the wedding in 1858 of Victoria, Princess Royal 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 warfare while visiting William Powell Frith in Kensington. Phillip’s self-portrait, The Evil Eye, commissioned by his near friend Patrick Allan-Fraser, is in Hospitalfield House in Arbroath, along with portraits of new members of The Clique.
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