Australian painter and teacher, E. Phillips Fox was born in Melbourne on 12 March 1865, the son of a Jewish photographer and an artist mother. His father left home in 1866 and his mother remained central to an exceptionally closely knit family. He studied at the National Gallery School, Melbourne, from 1878 to 1886, where fellow students included Rupert Bunny , Florence Fuller , John Longstaff, Frederick McCubbin and Tudor St George Tucker . From 1881 to 1887, he taught evening classes at an artisans’ school of design and, from 1885, he joined Tom Roberts on weekend painting excursions around Melbourne.

In 1887 Fox left for Europe, where he studied in Paris from 1887 to 1889 at the Académie Julian and at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts from 1889 to 1890 under Jean-Léon Gérôme, supported by his brothers Joel and Philip. In 1889 Fox also joined the afternoon class of the American artist-teacher Alexander Harrison. Fox met up with Bertram Mackennal, John Longstaff, John Peter Russell and Tudor St George Tucker and, in the summers, painted at the artists’ communities at Etaples in Picardy with Tucker and Iso and Alison Rae, and also in Britanny. During 1890 and 1891, he moved to the artists’ colony at St Ives, Cornwall. He copied Velasquez’s works in Madrid in 1891 and visited the countryside near Paris.

Fox returned to Melbourne in 1892, where he chiefly painted portraits and landscapes. In 1893, Fox and Tucker opened the Melbourne School of Art, where they introduced students to French teaching practices and promoted the plein air painting approach at their outdoor summer school, held from about 1894 at Charterisville, near Eaglemont. In 1901, Fox left for London, having been commissioned to paint The landing of Captain Cook at Botany Boy (National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne), which he was required to paint overseas. He spent time in London and revisited the artists’ colony at St Ives, where he met Ethel Carrick, whom he married in 1905. In London he met up with George Coates , George W. Lambert , Hugh Ramsay, Tom Roberts , Arthur Streeton and Tudor St George Tucker. Fox and Carrick lived in Paris until 1913, and became good friends with Rupert Bunny and his wife. He was elected sociétaire of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1910. Fox and Carrick travelled widely in Europe, and visited Algiers in 1911, where they painted Arab scenes. Fox mainly painted elegant women and family groups, in which he captured sunlight effects and conveyed the graceful languor of the Edwardian era. Fox and Carrick visited Australia in 1908 and again in 1913 when, at the outbreak of war, they cancelled their plans to return to Europe.

E. Phillips Fox died of cancer in hospital in Melbourne on 8 October 1915, aged 50.

Writers:

Gray, Dr Anne Note: Head of Australian Art, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT

Date written:

2006

Last updated:

2011