The informality & intimacy of E Phillips Fox’s female figures

Tue 11 Mar 2025

After establishing himself as a successful painter in Australia, E (Emanuel) Phillips Fox (12 March 1865–1915) moved to England at the beginning of the twentieth century. In 1905, he married English artist Ethel Carrick (1872–1952) and the couple settled in Paris during the Parisian Belle Epoque, living at 65 Boulevard Arago in Montparnasse. Paris' artistic circles migrated to Montparnasse as the alternative to the Montmartre district which had been favoured by the previous generation of artists.

The couple remained in Paris until 1913 before settling in Australia. Throughout his years in Paris, Fox made a series of painting trips throughout Europe, northern Africa and Australia, and exhibited regularly at the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris (National Society of Fine Arts), being elected an Associate then a full member in 1910, the first Australian artist to attain that honour, and in 1912 was elected to the International Society of Painters, Sculptors and Gravers, London.

Bathing hour (L’heure du bain) c.1909

Bathing hour (L’heure du bain) c.1909 is thought to depict a beach on France’s Channel Coast that, in the early twentieth century, was frequented by the upper middle class.

Bathing was not yet common and, while it was unusual for a female child to appear naked in polite society, it was equally unusual for her to be tended to by her mother rather than a nanny. By contrasting the girl’s nakedness and the mother’s flowing robes with the more restrictive costumes of the women in the background, Fox may be commenting on the relaxation of social customs that was occurring in Europe at the time.

Resting c.1910–11

Fox began painting nudes in 1909, with some set in the garden of his and Carrick’s Parisan apartment, and others set indoors. Resting c.1910-11 is one of the finest of Fox’s nudes in an interior setting, and also one of his least conventional, with its shadowed half-light and the figure’s languid pose.

The end of the story c.1911-12

The end of the story c.1911-12 depicts a woman in contemplation, reclining upon a chaise lounge, with her fingers marking a page in a closed book. As in the case of many Fox’s paintings of women, she is depicted within an interior setting — confined within the domestic realm — as an idealised version of femininity. Fox was not alone among his contemporaries in depicting women in this way, in fact, many of the paintings being exhibited in Paris during this period featured similar subjects and treatment.