A magazine illustrator early in his career for McCalls and Ladies Home Journal, Samuel George Phillips later devoted himself to portraiture and landscape painting as part of the Pennsylvania Impressionist School, artists who painted in Bucks County after 1915 and were much influenced by Daniel Garber. Phillips, a student of Garber's at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, was described as one of three Garber students whose work "best represent his influence in Bucks County. . . His work represents some of the finest adaptations of Garber's style." (Folk 102) He was considered a member of what is commonly called the New Hope school, which was based in New Hope, Pennsylvania, Other teachers who were influences on Phillips' mostly traditional style were William Merritt Chase, Cecilia Beaux, and Hugh Breckenridge. Samuel George Phillips had studios in New York City, Philadelphia, and also lived in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Memberships included the Philadelphia Art Club. The Pennsylvania Academy was an exhibition venue for the years 1913, 1920-24, 1932 and 1937. He also exhibited work at the Corcoran Gallery and the National Academy of Design. His art appears in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Reading Public Museum. He has been featured in a number of publications including The Artists Bluebook, Who Was Who in American Art, Mantle Fielding's Dictionary, Davenports, American Art Review and Architectural Digest and many others. The art of the Pennsylvania impressionist has been gaining great appeal. In 2005 on the Antiques Road Show appraiser Debra Force of Debra Force Fine Arts appraised a Phillips brought to the show. At that time she stated “… as all the artists of the New Hope school-- his work has been escalating quite rapidly, and this has really gone on pretty much in the last three to five years.” The steep rise in S. George Phillips auction prices in the years since have illustrated this fact.
Samuel George Phillips (1890 - 1965)
"Daffodils in Blue Vase" Oil on canvas, 16” x 20” unframed