Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Philip Harper was awarded a premium at the Dublin Society's School of Drawing in Architecture on 28 May 1767 and another on 26 May 1768.(1) He described himself as a draughtsman and portrait painter and a 'pupil of Mr Cranfield' when he exhibited two architectural drawings - 'an elevation for a nobleman's house' and 'an elevation of a temple' - at the Society of Artists in Ireland in 1770.(2) 'Mr Cranfield' was RICHARD CRANFIELD RICHARD CRANFIELD . Philip Harper (whose name is also spelt 'Harpur') became a portraitist in crayon after the manner of Hugh Douglas Hamilton.(3)



References



(1) IAA, Edward McParland files, Acc. 2008/44.; Harper's name does not appear in the MS transcript of Royal Dublin Society admissions and prizewinners in IAA, while Strickland states that Harper was admitted in 1764 and won a prize in 1768.
(2) Society of Artists in Ireland: Index of Exhibits, 1765-80 (1985), 13.
(3) W.G. Strickland, A Dictionary of Irish Artists (1913), I, 449.