3-080-679 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The Artist and his Wife, c1840s. On 24th September 1844 John Phillip married the beautiful Maria Elizabeth Dadd. She was the younger sister of his friend and fellow artist, Richard Dadd. Tragically, like her brother, Maria suffered from schizophrenia. The previous August ;Richard Dadd had murdered their father. He was committed to the insane asylum and remained incarcerated for the rest of his life. The Phillips had two children, Amy, born in 1849 and Colin, born in 1855. Just a few months after Colin's birth, their apparently idyllic family life in Kensington was brought shatteringly to an end when Maria, annoyed by the crying of her baby, attempted to strangle him. With no effective treatment available Phillip was forced to hospitalise Maria who, from 1863, was a permanent resident at Elmhill Asylum in Aberdeen.