Explore: Jan Caspar Philips

(1690 - 1775)

Draughtsman and engraver Jan Caspar Philips was born in Germany but later settled in Amsterdam, where he took on his nephew, engraver and architectural historian Caspar Jacobsz Philips (1732-1789) and engraver Simon Fokke (1712-1784) as pupils. Philips executed views of Versailles and the Bastille, as well as an illustration to Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’. He also contributed engravings to Jan Wagenaar's ‘Hedendaagse Historie’ (published 1738-58). In 1743 Philips engraved the portraits of 30 Dutch Mennonite ministers, including Menno Simons, and these were published in Amsterdam in 1743 by Kornelis de Wit under the title ‘Verzaameling van Afbeeldingen van Doopsgezinde Leeraaren’. Philips died in Amsterdam at about the age of 85.