Explore: Charles Philips

(1708 - 1747)

Portrait painter Charles Philips was born in London; the son of Richard Philips (c.1681–1741), a minor painter who probably taught him. Philips produced small individual portraits, group portraits and conversation pieces. His patrons included Algernon, Seventh Duke of Somerset and the Duchess of Portland. As the 1730s progressed his conversation pieces became more elaborate, with an increasing number of sitters participating in more varied activities. In 1737, Frederick, Prince of Wales and his wife, Princess Augusta, sat to Philips for full-length portraits. In the same year the painter married Mary Francis and soon afterwards moved to Great Queen Street, near Lincoln's Inn Fields. Philips died in London, at about the age of 39.