Skip to main content
The Artist's Spanish Guide
The Artist's Spanish Guide

The Artist's Spanish Guide

Artist (Aberdeen, Scotland, 1817 - 1867)
Sitter
Date1856
Mediumoil on canvas
ClassificationsPaintings And Drawings
DimensionsOverall: Height: 40.8 cm, Width: 31.9 cm
Frame: Height: 63.9 cm, Width: 54.8 cm
AcquisitionAlexander Macdonald Bequest, 1901.
CopyrightOut of copyright - CC0
LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub
Object numberABDAG003842
About MeThis was painted on Phillip's second visit to Spain, in 1856. Phillip, who was travelling with artist Richard Ansdell, decided to employ a Spanish guide, perhaps on the recommendation of the travel writer Richard Ford, who had cautioned, "English servants, whom no wise person would take on the Continent, are nowhere more useless or greater incumbrances [sic] than in Spain."

Phillip painted a portrait of the guide, Pepe Bensacki, in Seville later that year. With his thick tousled hair, jaunty tartan bow tie and confident gaze, Pepe looks more like a friend and companion than a servant.