Dorothea Sarah Florence Alexandra, Lady Phillips (née Ortlepp; 14 June 1863 – 23 August 1940) was a South African art patroness and promoter of

indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...

culture. She was married to Sir Lionel Phillips, 1st Baronet, a mining magnate and politician and was known by one of her middle names, Florence.

Early life

Florence Ortlepp was born in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

in 1863, the only daughter of Albert Frederick Ortlepp, a

Colesberg Colesberg is a town with 17,354 inhabitants in the Northern Cape province of South Africa, located on the main N1 road from Cape Town to Johannesburg. In a sheep-farming area spread over half-a-million hectares, greater Colesberg breeds many ...

land surveyor and naturalist, and Sarah Walker. She received her education at

Rondebosch Rondebosch is one of the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town, South Africa. It is primarily a residential suburb, with shopping and business districts as well as the main campus of the University of Cape Town. History Four years after the first Dutch s ...

and later in

Bloemfontein Bloemfontein, ( ; , "fountain of flowers") also known as Bloem, is one of South Africa's three capital cities and the capital of the Free State province. It serves as the country's judicial capital, along with legislative capital Cape To ...

. Lionel Phillips met her on the diamond-diggings and married her in 1885. They moved to

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...

in 1889 during the early days of the city's

gold rush A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New ...

. She travelled extensively from 1887, but returned hurriedly to be with her husband during his trial following the

Jameson Raid The Jameson Raid (29 December 1895 – 2 January 1896) was a botched raid against the South African Republic (commonly known as the Transvaal) carried out by British colonial administrator Leander Starr Jameson, under the employment of Cecil ...

. After his sentence, reprieve and exile, they left for London and established a home in Grosvenor Square while maintaining a country house at Tylney Hall in Hampshire. While the couple lived in London, Florence acquired a keen interest in art and bought numerous works by artists of the time, including

William Orpen Major Sir William Newenham Montague Orpen, (27 November 1878 – 29 September 1931) was an Irish artist who worked mainly in London. Orpen was a fine draughtsman and a popular, commercially successful painter of portraits for the well-to-do in ...

William Rothenstein Sir William Rothenstein (29 January 1872 – 14 February 1945) was an English painter, printmaker, draughtsman, lecturer, and writer on art. Emerging during the early 1890s, Rothenstein continued to make art right up until his death. Though he c ...

Walter Sickert Walter Richard Sickert (31 May 1860 – 22 January 1942) was a German-born British painter and printmaker who was a member of the Camden Town Group of Post-Impressionist artists in early 20th-century London. He was an important influence on d ...

Philip Wilson Steer Philip Wilson Steer (28 December 1860 – 18 March 1942) was a British painter of landscapes, seascapes plus portraits and figure studies. He was also an influential art teacher. His sea and landscape paintings made him a leading figure in ...

, Camille Pissarro,

Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. Durin ...

and

Alfred Sisley Alfred Sisley (; ; 30 October 1839 – 29 January 1899) was an Impressionist landscape painter who was born and spent most of his life in France, but retained British citizenship. He was the most consistent of the Impressionists in his dedicatio ...

. She presented many of these works to the Johannesburg Art Gallery, which she actively helped to establish. On a visit to South Africa in 1905, she commissioned

Rudolf Marloth Hermann Wilhelm Rudolf Marloth (28 December 1855 Lübben, Germany – 15 May 1931 Caledon, Cape Province) was a German-born South African botanist, pharmacist and analytical chemist, best known for his ''Flora of South Africa'' which appeared i ...

to undertake his Flora of South Africa, a mammoth work published in six volumes between 1913 and 1932.

Art collection

After resettling in Johannesburg, she started acquiring paintings with a view to eventually founding an art gallery, which after many difficulties took shape as the

Johannesburg Art Gallery The Johannesburg Art Gallery is an art gallery in Joubert Park in the city centre of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is the largest gallery on the continent with a collection that is larger than that of the Iziko South African National Gallery ...

. She played a leading role in projects aimed at cultivating and preserving the local artistic heritage. She persuaded Sir

Max Michaelis Sir Maximillian Michaelis, (11 May 1852 Eisfeld, Germany – 26 January 1932, Zurich) was a South African financier, mining magnate, benefactor and patron of the arts. Early life and education Michaelis received his early schooling in ...

to donate his considerable collection of 17th century Dutch and Flemish paintings to the city of

. She headed a movement to preserve and restore the Koopmans-De Wet House in Cape Town and was an enthusiastic collector of Africana furniture, both for her own home and public institutions. She was instrumental, with Prof. G.E. Pearse, in establishing a Faculty of Architecture at the

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( or ). The university ...

Literary output

In 1913, her book "A Friendly Germany: Why Not?" was published pleading for friendly relations between England and Germany. She was of the opinion that Britain and Germany should unite against the self-determination movement amongst the Asians and Africans, which she referred to as "The Black and the Yellow Perils".

Later life

Florence and Lionel Phillips eventually settled at the farm

Vergelegen Vergelegen (Dutch: "remotely situated") is a historic wine estate in Somerset West, in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Foundation The estate was settled in 1700 by an early Governor of the Cape, Willem Adriaan van der Stel. Van ...

near

Somerset West Somerset West ( af, Somerset-Wes) is a town in the Western Cape, South Africa. Organisationally and administratively it is included in the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality as a suburb of the Helderberg region (formerly called Hottent ...

in 1924. Here they devoted their spare time to encouraging the preservation of national heritage culture and artefacts. They also sponsored immigrants through the

1820 Settlers The 1820 Settlers were several groups of British colonists from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, settled by the government of the United Kingdom and the Cape Colony authorities in the Eastern Cape of South Africa in 1820. Origins After ...

Memorial Association and a number of other public causes. Many of the Randlords and their wives commissioned portraits of themselves from leading European society portraitists of the time. The living room of the Vergelegen Manor House is adorned by a youthful and opulent portrayal of Florence by the Italian artist

Giovanni Boldini Giovanni Boldini (31 December 1842 – 11 January 1931) was an Italian genre and portrait painter who lived and worked in Paris for most of his career. According to a 1933 article in ''Time'' magazine, he was known as the "Master of Swish" becaus ...

, while a more mature and sombre rendering by the British portraitist Sir William Nicholson is to be seen in the Music Room. The Boldini portrait was presented by Lady Phillips to the SA National Gallery in the 1930s. She died in 1940 at

. She and her husband are buried in the Brixton Cemetery in Johannesburg. They had two sons and a daughter.

References

Sources

*Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa vol. 8 (NASOU 1973)

External links and references

Parktown HeritageSunday Times articleSA National Gallery article13, April 1913 NY Times Review of "A Friendly Germany: Why Not?"25, May 1913 NY Times Review of "A Friendly Germany: Why Not?"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, Florence 1863 births 1940 deaths People from Cape Town South African Jews South African philanthropists South African art collectors Wives of baronets