John Philips

This portraitback to top

Apparently attributed to Philips himself in the 1879 sale, but he is not known to have painted.
Costume and the sitter’s apparent age suggest a date of c.1700. The identity is confirmed by comparison with the engraving by M. Vandergucht prefixed to Philips’ Collected Works 1715; a similar plate published by J. Duncombe in 1804 is titled ‘From an original Painting in possession of the Revd Mr Lilly’. [1]

Footnotesback to top

1) Other related plates include those by Cook 1782 and Hopwood 1799 (attributing the portrait to Kneller).

Referenceback to top

Piper 1963
D. Piper, Catalogue of the Seventeenth Century Portraits in the National Portrait Gallery 1625-1714, 1963, p 279.

Provenanceback to top

Mrs Parker of Rugby; sold Christie’s, 10 April 1879, lot 223 (‘Phillips-Head of himself-oval’), bought Barrett; H. L. Brooke, Bayswater, from whom purchased 1915.

Exhibitionsback to top

Cider Festival, Hereford, 1972.


This extended catalogue entry is from the National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Later Stuart Portraits 1685–1714, National Portrait Gallery, 2009, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.

View all known portraits for John Philips