Within recent years the National Portrait Gallery has taken pride in fostering the work of contemporary portrait painters. It was indeed through the annual John Play Portrait Award that we first got to know Tom Phillips when he joined the panel of judges and brought his experienced eye and considerable acumen to the often difficult task of selection. We had of course been aware that he had produced a small number of privately commissioned works, but it was not until the Gallery asked him to paint the distinguished novelist, Dame Iris Murdoch, that the range and depth of his approach to the problem of the contemporary portrait became fully apparent. The finished painting and magnificent series of large conté drawings stand without doubt in the front rank of all the Gallery's commissions and form a worthy monument to both sitter and artist.

Since then, portraiture has assumed an increasing importance in Tom Phillips' oeuvre. As well as a number of distinguished paintings exhibited annually at the Royal Academy, there have been several important commissions including the highly original Sir Claus Moser for Wadham College, Oxford, and the forthcoming portrait of Lord Scarman for Warwick University. It is appropriate therefore that Tom Phillips should follow that pre-eminent master of the twentieth-century portrait, Graham Sutherland, as only the second contemporary painter to have held a full retrospective exhibition of portraits at the Gallery.

We are indebted to Hansjörg Mayer for the opportunity of being associated with the all too rare publication of a full catalogue raisonné of all the artist's portrait work and in particular to Tom Phillips himself for his illuminating text which provides a unique insight into the genesis and production of many of his principal portraits. In addition we must thank all those lenders, both private and institutional, who have made their paintings and drawings available for the exhibition.

JOHN HAYES
Director, National Portrait Gallery

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