Jonas Phillips
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Object Details
- Artist
- Unidentified Artist
- Sitter
- Jonas Phillips, 1736 - 29 Jan 1803
- Exhibition Label
- Born Buseck, Germany
- Jonas Phillips immigrated to Charleston, South Carolina, in 1756, as an indentured servant. He ultimately rose to become a prominent businessperson and advocate for the Jewish faith. By 1758 he had worked off his debt and moved to Albany, New York, as a freeman. The next year, he started his first of many businesses: selling goods during the French and Indian War (1754–63). Ever entrepreneurial, though not always successful, he started new ventures, moved between cities, married, and eventually had twenty-one children. In 1782, in the midst of the Revolutionary War (1775–83), he helped found Congregation Mikveh Israel in Philadelphia.
- During the war, Phillips found success as a merchant-shipper. A patriot, he was mustered into service in 1778. Afterward, he urged the new government to endorse religious freedom. In 1787, he wrote to George Washington to ask that all Americans, “live under a government where all Religious societys [sic] are on an Eaquel [sic] footing.”
- Unidentified artist
- Nacido en Buseck, Alemania
- Jonas Phillips inmigró en 1756 a Charleston, Carolina del Sur, con un contrato de servidumbre. Con el tiempo llegó a ser un prominente hombre de negocios y defensor de la fe judía. Para 1758 había pagado su contrato con su trabajo y, ya libre, se mudó a Albany, Nueva York. Al año siguiente inició su primer negocio: venta de mercancías durante la Guerra Franco-Indígena (1754–63). Emprendedor, aunque no siempre exitoso, inició diversas empresas, vivió en varias ciudades, se casó y tuvo 21 hijos.
- En 1782, en medio de la Guerra de Independencia (1775–83), colaboró en la fundación de la Congregación Mikveh Israel en Filadelfia.
- Durante la guerra, Phillips tuvo éxito como exportador. En 1778 se alistó en el servicio militar del lado de los patriotas. Luego instaría al nuevo gobierno a endosar la libertad religiosa. En 1787 escribió a George Washington pidiendo que todos los estadunidenses vivieran “bajo un gobierno donde todas las sociedades religiosas existan en un plano de igualdad”.
- Provenance
- Mrs. Amelia Mayhoff, descendant; (Argosy Gallery, New York); purchased c. 1953 by Mark Bortman, Boston; his daughter, Jane Bortman Larus, Sarasota, Flor.; purchased 1997 NPG
- Credit Line
- National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
- c. 1790
- Object number
- NPG.97.189
- Restrictions & Rights
- CC0
- Type
- Painting
- Medium
- Oil on wood panel
- Dimensions
- 35.6 x 27.3 cm (14 x 10 3/4")
- Frame: 53.3 × 45.1 × 5.7 cm (21 × 17 3/4 × 2 1/4")
- See more items in
- National Portrait Gallery Collection
- Exhibition
- Out of Many: Portraits from 1600 to 1900
- On View
- NPG, East Gallery 142
- National Portrait Gallery
- Topic
- Jonas Phillips: Male
- Jonas Phillips: Business and Finance\Businessperson\Merchant
- Portrait
- Record ID
- npg_NPG.97.189
- Metadata Usage (text)
- CC0
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sm44fba9e65-19ee-4eac-a74d-6712810bf112
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