John Phillip was a Victorian era

Victorian era

The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...

 painter best known for his portrayals of Spanish life. He was nicknamed "Spanish Phillip".

Born into a poor family in Aberdeen

Aberdeen

Aberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 25th most populous city, with an official population estimate of ....

 in Scotland, Phillip's artistic talent was recognised at an early age. His education at the Royal Academy of Arts was paid for by a wealthy patron. While at the academy Phillip became a member of The Clique

The Clique

The Clique was a group of English artists formed by Richard Dadd in the late 1830s. Other members were Augustus Egg, Alfred Elmore, William Powell Frith, Henry Nelson O'Neil, John Phillip and Edward Matthew Ward....

 a group of aspirant artists organised by Richard Dadd

Richard Dadd

Richard Dadd was an English painter of the Victorian era, noted for his depictions of fairies and other supernatural subjects, Orientalist scenes, and enigmatic genre scenes, rendered with obsessively minuscule detail...

. The Clique considered themselves to be followers of Hogarth

William Hogarth

William Hogarth was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects"...

 and Wilkie

David Wilkie (artist)

Sir David Wilkie was a Scottish painter.- Early life :Wilkie was the son of the parish minister of Cults in Fife. He developed a love for art at an early age. In 1799, after he had attended school at Pitlessie, Kettle and Cupar, his father reluctantly agreed to his becoming a painter...

. Phillip's own career was to follow that of fellow-Scot Wilkie very closely, beginning with carefully detailed paintings depicting the lives of Scottish crofters, and moving on to much more broadly painted scenes of Spanish life influenced by Murillo

Bartolomé Estéban Murillo

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo was a Spanish Baroque painter. Although he is best known for his religious works, Murillo also produced a considerable number of paintings of contemporary women and children...

 and Velázquez

Diego Velázquez

Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez was a Spanish painter who was the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV. He was an individualistic artist of the contemporary Baroque period, important as a portrait artist...

.

Phillip's early works tended to depict pious Scots families, but in 1851, after he was advised to travel to southern Europe for his health he visited Spain. Thereafter he concentrated on Spanish subjects. The first of these, The Letter Writer, Seville indicated the influence of Pre-Raphaelitism

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was a group of English painters, poets, and critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti...

, a movement he had previously opposed, along with most other members of The Clique, despite his friendship with Millais, one of its leaders. He was so influenced by his travels that he advised other artists to do the same. Some artists, such as Edwin Long

Edwin Long

Edwin Longsden Long RA was an English genre, history, biblical and portrait painter.-Life and works:Long was born in Bath, Somerset, the son of E. Long, an artist , and was educated at Dr. Viner's School in Bath. Adopting the profession of a painter, Long came to London and studied in the British...

, 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

National Gallery of Scotland

The National Gallery of Scotland, in Edinburgh, is the national art gallery of Scotland. An elaborate neoclassical edifice, it stands on The Mound, between the two sections of Edinburgh's Princes Street Gardens...

). The first depicted the young Murillo drawing his art from Spanish street-life; the second portrayed a Spanish wake for a dead child.

Phillip married Richard Dadd's sister, but like her brother she became insane. Phillip died of a stroke while visiting William Powell Frith

William Powell Frith

William Powell Frith , was an English painter specialising in genre subjects and panoramic narrative works of life in the Victorian era. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1852...

. Phillip's self-portrait, "The Evil Eye", commissioned by his close friend Patrick Allan-Fraser, is in Hospitalfield House

Hospitalfield House

Hospitalfield House is an arts centre and historic house in Arbroath, Angus, Scotland regarded as "one of the finest country houses in Scotland". It is believed to be "Scotland's first school of fine art" and the first art college in Britain...

 in Arbroath

Arbroath

Arbroath or Aberbrothock is a former royal burgh and the largest town in the council area of Angus in Scotland, and has a population of 22,785...

along with portraits of other members of The Clique.