John Birnie Philip

John Birnie Philip (23 November 1824 – 2 March 1875) was a nineteenth-century English sculptor. Much of his work was carried out for the architect Sir George Gilbert Scott.

Life

St Michael disputing with Satan(1858) at St Michael Cornhill

He was born in London on 23 November. 1824, the son of William and Elizabeth Philip.^[1] He studied at the Government School of Design at Somerset House in London under John Rogers Herbert, and then at Herbert's own newly opened school in Maddox Street. He went on to work in Pugin's wood carving workshop at the Palace of Westminster before setting up his own studio.^[2]

Much of his work was carried out for the Gothic Revival architect Sir George Gilbert Scott. At St Michael, Cornhill, in the City of London, he carved the decorations for the porch built Scott as part of his Gothic embellishment of Wren's church. They included an elaborate tympanum sculpture depicting St Michael disputing with Satan,^[3]which was the first work which he exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1858.^[1][4] He did further carvings for the interior of the building.^[3] As part of Scott's restoration of St Mary's chapel at Sudeley Castle, Philip made a font and reredos, and a white marble effigy for the canopied tomb of Catherine Parr.^[5] The effigy was shown – unfinished – at the Royal Academy in 1858.^[4]

In 1863-4 Scott commissioned him, along with Henry Hugh Armstead (1828–1905), to make the podium frieze (known as the Frieze of Parnassus) on the Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens. Philip carved the images of architects (including Scott himself) on the west side of the monument, and those of the sculptors on the north. As well as his work on the frieze, he modelled the bronze allegorical statues of Geometry, Philosophy, Geology and Physiology for niches on the western side of the canopy, and the gilt metal angels on the spire. At the time of the commission, Philip and Armstead were little known compared to the other sculptors working on the memorial.^[6][7]

Elsewhere in London, he produced allegorical figures (including Art, Law and Commerce) for the front of Scott's Foreign and Commonwealth Office on Whitehall, eight figures of monarchs for the Royal Gallery in the Palace of Westminster (1868–1869), a "young woman in classical drapery floating forward on a small cloud" on top of a drinking fountain in West Smithfield Square (1870) and the decorations, depicting plants and birds, on the Portland stone capitals of the piers of Blackfriars Bridge.^[8] In 1874, the year before his death, he was paid £312 for carving "the Relievos etc." on the entrance porch at the Royal Academy's Burlington House^[9]

His works in churches and cathedrals include the reredoses for Ely Cathedral, St. George's Chapel, Windsor^[1] and Lichfield Cathedral, decorative work at Wakefield Cathedral, the tomb of Dean Lyall in Canterbury Cathedral and the tomb of Lt Col Willoughby Moore in York Minster.

Statue of Robert Hall, by Philip, off New Walk, Leicester

Often commissioned to make commemorative municipal works, Philip produced a bust of Richard Cobden for the Halifax Chamber of Commerce (1867)^[1] a statue of the humanitarian Richard Oastler, now situated in Northgate, Bradford, and one of the Reverend Robert Hall in De Montfort Square, Leicester.

His last work was the statue of Colonel Akroyd, M.P., erected at Halifax.^[1]

His apprentices included Thomas Stirling Lee.^[10]

Family

He married Frances Black in 1853. They had ten children, including a daughter, Beatrix, who married James McNeill Whistler in 1888. Birnie's youngest daughter Rosalind acted as Whistler's companion, secretary and house-keeper after Beatrix's death, and was appointed his executrix. Birnie's son Ronald accompanied Whistler on a trip to the Mediterranean, and Beatrix, Ronald and Rosalind all modelled for him at various times, as did their mother Frances.^[11] Another daughter, Constance, married the artist Cecil Gordon Lawson.

Death

He died of bronchitis at his home, Merton Villa, King's Road, Chelsea on 2 March 1875, and was buried in Brompton Cemetery.^[1]

References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 O'Donoghue, Freeman Marius (1896). "Philip, John Birnie". In Lee, Sidney. Dictionary of National Biography 45. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 
2. ↑ "John Birnie Philip". Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951. University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII. Retrieved 13 Oct 2011. 
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Ward-Jackson, Philip. Public Sculpture of the City of London. Liverpool University Press. pp. 89–90. ISBN 978-0-85323-977-2. Retrieved 12 October 2011. 
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Graves, Algernon (1905). The Royal Academy: A Complete Dictionary of Contributors from its Foundations in 1769 to 1904 6. London: Henry Graves. p. 118. 
5. ↑ A Handbook for Travellers in Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and Herefordshire. London: John Murray. 1867. p. 32. Retrieved 23 October 2011. 
6. ↑ "Sheppard FHW, ed. 'Albert Memorial: The memorial', pp. 159-176, in: Survey of London (Vol. 38: South Kensington Museums Area) (1975)". English Heritage. Retrieved 2008-03-17. 
7. ↑ John Birnie Philip (1824-1875)
8. ↑ "Blackfriars Bridge". The Building News and Engineering Journal 17: 347. 1869. Retrieved 12 October 2011. 
9. ↑ From: 'Burlington House', Survey of London: volumes 31 and 32: St James Westminster, Part 2 (1963), pp. 390-429. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=41482. Date accessed: 6 November 2006
10. ↑ "Thomas Stirling Lee". Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951. Glasgow University. Retrieved 31 May 2013. 
11. ↑ Biography for: John Birnie Philip