PHILLIPS, Ewan Maurice Godfrey
As Ewan Maurice Godfrey van Zwanenberg-Phillips, he was born at Kensington, London on 15 March 1914, son of Godfrey van Zwanenberg-Phillips (8 August 1886-December 1955), a solicitor, who opened an art gallery, The Godfrey Phillips Galleries, 43-44 Duke Street, St. James's, London, and his wife Rose Dorothy née Jacobs (6 April 1886-9 April 1986), a model for both Augustus Edwin John (1878-1961) and Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), who married at Hampstead, London in 1912. After leaving Epsom School of Art in 1931, Ewan spent a year at Goldsmiths College in Lewisham, where his contemporaries included Merlyn Evans (1910-1973) and Ewan's first wife Betsy Blake. He then became one of the first students at the newly opened Courtauld Institute of Art, under the aegis of Anthony Blunt (1907-1983). During the Second World War he served in the Intelligence Corps, mostly in Mombasa and Mauritius and, after hostilities, applied to Anthony Blunt for a post in 'Monuments, Fine Art and Archives', the unit dealing with the retrieval of lost and looted works of art. After a brief time, with the rank of captain, he was posted to take over as officer-in-charge of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein, where for three years he worked with German museum officials. In 1948 he obtained the position as the first director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London, but in 1953 resigned and turned his attention to art dealing, working for some time on his own account before joining the Kaplan Gallery at Duke Street, St James's and in 1965, together with his second wife, opened his own gallery in Maddox Street, London, but after three years or so it closed. He married twice, in 1936 at Kensington, Betsy Blake and secondly at St Pancras, London in 1972, Kathleen Grant (died 12 February 2009). Art historian and consultant, dealer in 19-20th century paintings and sculpture but not an artist but was a member of the Beccles Society of Artists 1977-1990, being described as a 'member & exhibitor'. Ewan Maurice Godfrey van Zwanenberg-Phillips died at Marsh Farm, Thorington, Saxmundham, Suffolk on 8 May 1994.