Iris Murdoch
- Artist: Tom Phillips
- Date: 1984-1986
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 36 in. x 28 in. (914 mm x 711 mm)
- Portrays: Dame (Jean) Iris Murdoch
- Museum: The National Portrait Gallery
- Collection record: The National Portrait Gallery website
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About this artwork
In this oil on canvas portrait from 1984‑1986 by Tom Phillips we see a quiet, luminous woman—Dame (Jean) Iris Murdoch—sitting in the artist’s own studio corner. Her head is turned just slightly toward us, and her gaze is soft yet attentive, catching light that Phillips calls “an electric light‑bulb” glowing on her face.
Notice how the background shows a small detail from Titian’s *The Flaying of Marsyas*. The painter chose to place this Renaissance fragment above the sitter, perhaps as an inside joke or conversation between artist and subject. In front of her left hand, a single ginkgo leaf leans just beyond the canvas edge, its fine veins captured in delicate brushwork.
Phillips painted this over three years, meeting the writer fifteen times for short sittings. The portrait hangs simply; the frame’s dark moulding lets the canvas float on the wall without distraction.
This work celebrates Murdoch’s literary influence—she won the 1978 Booker Prize for *The Sea, The Sea*—and shows Phillips’ calm, almost dispassionate style.
See it in person
Iris Murdoch is in the collection of The National Portrait Gallery at St Martin's Place, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
