John Birnie Philip

Born 23 November 1824
Died 2 March 1875

Active: 1841 - 1875

Country of birth and death: England

Sculptor, architectural sculptor

Born in London, the son of William Philip, a tailor. He studied at the Government School of Design from 1841. When his tutor, John Rogers Herbert, RA opened a new school in Maddox Street, John Birnie Philip became one of his pupils.

He started by working for Pugin in the wood carving shop at the Houses of Parliament but then opened his own studio. Birnie Philip's principal commissions were for architectural, funerary and church monuments. Among his more prominent works were the reredos for Ely Cathedral (1854), a series of eight statues in gilt Caen stone of English monarchs for the Royal Gallery at Westminster Palace (1861-9), five choir screen figures and reredos ornaments for Lichfield Cathedral, Staffordshire (1864), 'Peace', a drinking fountain in collaboration with Farmer and Brindley for West Smithfield Gardens, London, cast by Elkington and Co. (1871-73) and statues for the facade of Burlington House (1870). However his principal patron was the architect, Sir George Gilbert Scott for whom he made the largest and most important groups of sculptures. These include the reredos for St George's Chapel, Windsor (1863), several statuary groups for the facade of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (sculpture executed between 1867 and 1874), and an important series of works for the Albert Memorial (1864-72) (the architects and sculptors friezes, allegories of geometry, geology, physiology and philosophy, as well as eight figures of angels).

A number of sculptors worked for Philip who later went on to become successful artists in their own right or working in collaboration with others. Among these were Edwin Roscoe Mullins (1848-1907) and Robert Glassby (1835-92). Philip's principal modeller was the Italian sculptor, Ceccardo Egidio Fucigna, who completed the unfinished works in the studio when his employer died of bronchitis in 1875.

There were close connections between John Birnie Philip, his family and the painter James McNeill Whistler. Philip's daughter Beatrix (1857-1896) married first in 1876 the Aesthetic Movement architect and designer E. W. Godwin with whom she had a son, Edwin Godwin, who became a sculptor. Two years after E.W. Godwin's death in 1886 she married Whistler (11 August 1888). He had paid for her to retrain in Paris (she had studied in her father's workshop and with Godwin) and taught her etching after their marriage. Beatrix also designed jewellery and stained glass. Another daughter of John Birnie Philip, Rosalind (1873-1958), acted as companion, model, secretary and house keeper for Whistler after Beatrix's death in 1896, and was appointed the artist's executrix at his death. She was assisted in housekeeping for the painter by her mother, Frances Philip (1824-1917) who also posed for Whistler.

Wealth at death: £3,000 0s. 0d.
Effects under £3,000
Probate date: 17 April 1875

Citing this record

'John Birnie Philip', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib5_1246458432, accessed 23 Sep 2023]

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