Mrs Pru Phillips

Physical description

Portrait of a woman, half-length, looking to front, the head turned slighlty to left, a ringlet of hair on her left shoulder; oval on a rectangular sheet. Features in very soft blended strokes of brown with blue shadowing, with pink gouache around the nostrils, black and blue with white lights for the eyes, and red for the lips, on a thick creamy carnation ground; hair in very pale brown strokes with grey gouache and long darker brown lining; dress indicated by a red wash, with grey-blue for a mantle and impasted white over pale brown wash for the chemise; background diagonally hatched in browns and ochres over a pale brown wash; on vellum put down on a leaf from a table-book.

Place of Origin

England, Great Britain (painted)

Date

ca.1690 (painted)

Artist/maker

Susannah Penelope Rosse, born 1647 - died 1700 (artist)

Materials and Techniques

Watercolour on vellum put down on a leaf from a table-book

Marks and inscriptions

'Mrs Pru Fillips'

Dimensions

Height: 93 mm sheet, Width: 70 mm sheet, Height: 75 mm oval, Width: 59 mm oval

Object history note

Provenance: Presumably acquired from Cooper's estate by the Rosses, or perhaps by Priestman (see Rosse, Cat. No. 143) and perhaps in the Michael Rosse sale, 2 April 1723; eventually purchased by Edwin [Durning] Lawrence before 1862, and sold by him to the Museum for £525 in 1892.

Descriptive line

Portrait miniature of Mrs Pru Phillips, watercolour on vellum by Susannah-Penelope Rosse, ca.1690.

Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)

John Murdoch, Seventeenth-century English Miniatures in the Collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London: The Stationery Office in association with the Victoria & Albert Museum, 1997.
Cat.142, p.244. Full Citation:

“142 Mrs Pru Phillips
c.1690
445-1892

Rectangular 93 x 68 mm with a drawn oval 75 x 59 mm

Features in very soft blended strokes of brown with blue shadowing, with pink gouache around the nostrils, black and blue with white lights for the eyes, and red for the lips, on a thick creamy carnation ground; hair in very pale brown strokes with grey gouache and long darker brown lining; dress indicated by a red wash, with grey-blue for a mantle and impasted white over pale brown wash for the chemise; background diagonally hatched in browns and ochres over a pale brown wash; on vellum put down on a leaf from a table-book.

Condition: Rubbed and a little engrimed; otherwise fine.

Signed: Not signed. Inscribed on the back, in graphite: Mrs Pru Fillips.

Frame: From The Pocket Book, see Cat. No. 87. [460-1892]

Provenance: As for Cat. No. 88. [Presumably acquired from Cooper's estate by the Rosses, or perhaps by Priestman (see Rosse, Cat. No. 143) and perhaps in the Michael Rosse sale, 2 April 1723; eventually purchased by Edwin [Durning] Lawrence before 1862, and sold by him to the Museum for £525 in 1892.]

Exhibited: As for Cat. No. 88. [South Kensington 1862, no. 2531 (the set as Cooper); BFAC 1889, p. 133, case XLI, nos 1-15 (Cooper); V&A 1983, unnumbered.]

Literature: As for Cat. No. [Williamson 1904, vol. I, pp. 51-2 (on the set, reproducing four by Rosse); Foster 1898, p. 40; Foster 1903, vol. I, p. 53 (tentatively attributing the set to Flatman); Foster 1908, p. 184 (as attributed to Cooper, but Foster would give some to Dixon; he now states that some give the poorer ones to Flatman); Catalogue of Miniatures , 1908, pp. 9-10 (as formerly attributed to Cooper); Goulding 1914-15, p. 49 (as Rosse); Long 1929, p. 377 (Rosse); Long 1930, pp. 65-6 (as by Rosse); Reynolds 1952, pp. 81-2 (Rosse); Foskett 1963, pp. 77-8; Foskett 1972, vol I, p. 481 (Rosse); Foskett 1974, p. 91 (Rosse); Reynolds 1975, specifically p. 9, no. 1, pl. 13; Foskett 1979, pp. 125-6 (following Reynolds 1975); Summary Catalogue , 1981, p. 9 (Cooper); V J Murrell, 'The Craft of the Miniaturist' , Murdoch 1981, p. 12, fig. 14 (as Cooper); V J Murrell, 'Technique and Practice', Strong 1983, p. 28, no. 1; Reynolds 1988, p. 78 and specifically pp. 59 and 78] 88 for general references; specifically, Reynolds 1975, especially pp. 17-18, no. 12, pI. 26-7; Foskett 1979, repra. pl;. 25c.

The miniature was dated by Reynolds (1975) to c.1690.The sitter was a neighbour of the Rosses in Henrietta Street, the wife of William Phillips who settled on the same side of the street as the two Rosse households in 1688/9. Phillips was a wealthy man and was buried within St Paul's, Covent Garden, 16 September 1713, his wife having evidently predeceased him. Probably for that reason, he left everything to his brother Samuel, who had lived with him 'for many years'. Samuel was independently wealthy, a mercer, and a widower when he died towards the end of January 1721/2. The combined fortunes of the brothers descended therefore to Samuel's daughters Temperance, Margaret, Anne and Martha. Neither wife - William's nor Samuel's - was mentioned in the wills, and no marriage records have come to light. Mrs Pru Phillips could therefore have been the wife of either brother, but was perhaps marginally more likely to have been the wife of William, since Samuel would probably have already been a widower when he became a neighbour of the Rosses. In addition, the date of the miniature is significantly close to the date at which William arrived in Henrietta Street. (1)

1 I am grateful 10 Mary Edmond, personal communication, for this information.”

Exhibition History

Artists of the Tudor Court: the portrait miniature rediscovered, 1520-1620 (Victoria and Albert Museum 09/07/1983-06/11/19833)
Special Exhibition of Works of Art at the South Kensington Museum (Victoria and Albert Museum 1862-1862)
Exhibition of Portrait Miniatures (Burlington Fine Arts Club 1889-1889)
Can Art Save Us? (Millennium Gallery, Sheffield 22/10/2009-30/01/2010)

Materials

Watercolour; Vellum

Techniques

Painting

Subjects depicted

Woman; Mrs Pru Phillips

Categories

Portraits; Paintings

Collection code

PDP