Background
John Philip Simpson was born in London in 1782.
He was a student at the Royal Academy.
John Philip Simpson was born in London in 1782.
John was a student at the Royal Academy.
For some years he was an assistant to Sir Thomas Lawrence. He obtained some success as a portrait-painter, and eventually a very large practice. From 1807 to his death he was a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy and other exhibitions. In 1834 he received a commission to go to Portugal, and painted portraits at Lisbon, where he was appointed painter to the queen of Portugal. Simpson died at Carlisle House, Soho, in 1847.
The Captive Slave
Head of a Man
Elizabeth Sykes, Mrs Wilbraham Egerton
Henry Richard Vassall Fox, 3rd Baron Holland (copy after an original of 1829 by Charles Robert Leslie)
William IV
George Goodman, Mayor
Sir Herbert Taylor
Clarkson Stanfield
Queen Adelaide
Georgiana Maria, Lady de Tabley
Clarkson Stanfield
Frederick Marryat
Sir John Fleming Leicester
Arthur Wellesley
The Duke of Wellington
Captain Peter Heywood
Sir Charles Napier, Admiral
Quotes from others about the person
Late 19th-century biographer Sidney Lee was of the opinion that Simpson was "rather a skillful portraitist than an artist and that his portraits are not without power, but lack instinct and penetration."
John left two sons, who practised as artists, of whom Charles Simpson died young in 1848, having contributed a few landscapes to the London exhibitions. The other, Philip Simpson, was a student at the Royal Academy, and obtained some success for small domestic subjects from 1824 to 1857.