Stuart Phillips (1901-1981) had work included in a group show in Ajijic in 1971, some years after he retired from an executive position in Chicago. Details of his art education and training are currently unknown.
Stuart Phillips. 1967. Summer. Reproduced by kind permission of Shanna W. Sellers.
Stuart Grosvenor Stapleton Phillips was born 6 November 1901 in Londonderry, Northern Ireland to an English father and Scottish mother. His elder brother, George Henry Robert Trone Phillips, had been born in Scotland. According to an obituary Stuart entered the British Civil Service and later emigrated to Canada where he gained an LLB from the University of Manitoba and was admitted to the bar.
He then worked in Chicago, Illinois, where he became engaged to Christine Barbara Young (1903-1987) in December 1929. They married in Chicago on 8 March 1930, and had four children: Stuart Y. Phillips (born 1932); Christine Lillian Phillips, later Portoghese (1937–2004); Douglas G. Phillips (born 1940); and Constance Ada Phillips, later Kappel (born 1942). Phillips applied to become a naturalized citizen of the U.S. in 1942, and his petition was granted in October 1943.
Stuart Phillips worked most of his career with the Dole Valve Company of Chicago. In 1935, when he was Dole’s advertising manager, he was elected president of the Illinois Engineering Advertisers’ association. He ended his career at Dole as company vice-president.
Invitation card for Fiesta de Arte, 15 May 1971.
From about 1938 onward, Philips was an active member of the Austin, Oak Park and River Forest Art league. He helped organize studio galleries for the league in 1938, and showed works in the league’s summer series of shows in 1942, and in the league’s show of water colors and drawings in 1945. In the league’s Spring Show in 1952, Phillips’ painting “Low Tide” received an honorable mention. Later that year, he and his wife visited Europe, returning to the U.S. in early August.
Though he usually went by “Stuart G. Phillips,” it seems likely that he is the same “Stuart Phillips” who had paintings in the 1957 and 1958 Chicago Artists Exhibitions, non-juried exhibitions open to all artists living in the region, and sponsored by the Art Institute of Chicago in cooperation with the then Mayor of the city, Richard J. Daley. Phillips had two works in the 1957 exhibition: “Receding Planes” and “Outer Drive,” and one titled “No 179″ in the 1958 show. Also exhibiting in both shows was Emil Armin (1883-1971), whose 1957 submission was a painting of Chapala.
Phillips retired from his business career in 1960. Shortly afterwards he and his wife moved to Lake Chapala, where they lived in the subdivision of Chula Vista, at Avenida del Parque #136.
The only record of Phillips displaying his work at Lake Chapala was in the large group show called Fiesta de Arte, held at the residence of Mr and Mrs E. D. Windham (Calle 16 de Septiembre #33, Ajijic) on 15 May 1971.
Phillips died at home on 5 February 1981. His wife later returned to Illinois, where she died at La Grange Park on 27 June 1987.
Acknowledgment
- My sincere thanks to Shanna W. Sellers for sharing images of the painting used to illustrate this profile.
Sources
- Chicago Tribune: 30 Mar 1930, 105; 9 Sep 1935; 13 Feb 1938, 32; 9 Aug 1942, 31; 13 Apr 1952, 250; 23 18 Feb 1981.
Comments, corrections and additional material are welcome, whether via the comments feature or email.
Tony Burton’s books include “Lake Chapala: A Postcard History” (2022), “Foreign Footprints in Ajijic” (2022), “If Walls Could Talk: Chapala’s historic buildings and their former occupants” (2020), (available in translation as “Si Las Paredes Hablaran”), “Mexican Kaleidoscope” (2016), and “Lake Chapala Through the Ages” (2008).