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

Philip was born in London, the son of William and Elizabeth Philip. 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 Augustus Pugin's wood carving workshop at the Palace of Westminster before setting up his own studio.

Much of Philip's work was commissioned for buildings by 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 by Scott as part of his Gothic embellishment of Wren's church. They included an elaborate tympanum sculpture depicting St Michael disputing with Satan, He did further carvings for the interior of the building.

As part of Scott's restoration of St Mary's chapel at Sudeley Castle, Philip made a font and reredos, and a white, life-size, marble effigy for the canopied tomb of Catherine Parr. The effigy was shown – unfinished – at the Royal Academy in 1859. While carrying out this work, Philip lodged in the kitchen wing of The Pavilion, Sloane Place in Chelsea.

Elsewhere in London, Philip 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 (1868–69), a "young woman in classical drapery floating forward on a small cloud" for the Peace 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. By 1870, Philip's success meant he could move into his own home and studio at Manresa Road, Chelsea.

In 1874, the year before his death, Philip was paid £312 for carving "the Relievos etc." on the entrance porch at the Royal Academy's Burlington House.

His works in churches and cathedrals include the reredoses for Ely Cathedral, St. George's Chapel, Windsor

Often commissioned to make commemorative municipal works, Philip produced a bust of Richard Cobden for the Halifax Chamber of Commerce (1867), Much earlier, Philip had been responsible for the elaborate carving in Scott's church of All Souls, Haley Hill, Halifax, founded by Akroyd in 1856.

His apprentices included Thomas Stirling Lee.

Family

Philip married Frances Black in 1853. They had ten children, including a daughter, Beatrice (also called 'Beatrix' or 'Trixie'), who married James McNeill Whistler in 1888. Their daughter Ethel married the writer Charles Whibley. Birnie's youngest daughter Rosalind Birnie Philip acted as Whistler's companion, secretary and house-keeper after Beatrice's death, and was appointed his executrix. From December 1900 to February 1901 Birnie's son Ronald accompanied Whistler on a trip to the Morocco, Algiers and Corsica. Beatrice, Ronald, Ethel and Rosalind all modelled for him at various times, as did their mother Frances. His eldest daughter, Constance (1854–1929), married the artist Cecil Gordon Lawson.

Death Philip died of bronchitis at his home, Merton Villa, King's Road, Chelsea on 2 March 1875, and was buried in Brompton Cemetery.