Relatively little is known about the life of Samuel George Phillips. He was born in Pennsylvania on April 14, 1890, and studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, where his teachers were Daniel Garber, William Merritt Chase, Cecilia Beaux, and Hugh Breckenridge. He enjoyed some success as a commercial magazine illustrator, working for the Saturday Evening Post, Ladies Home Journal, Old Liberty Magazine, and McCall's.

Garber was the principal influence on Phillips's landscapes, which were primarily done at Point Pleasant in Bucks County and at Chadds Ford in Chester County. While he exhibited his landscapes only rarely, he developed a significant reputation for his portraits of physicians, academicians, and politicians, with commissions from such prominent citizens as Governor Leader of Pennsylvania; John F. Lewis, president of the Pennsylvania Academy; George B. Roberts, president of the Pennsylvania Railroad; and Millard Gladfelter, president of Temple University.

Phillips exhibited frequently at the Pennsylvania Academy, and also showed his work at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the National Academy of Design in New York. He kept a painting studio in Philadelphia for nearly fifty years, commuting daily from his home near Atlantic City, New Jersey. His best-known painting is a rendition of Santa Claus that he did for the Whitman Candy Company. The image was used for many years by the company in its advertisements.

Phillips died in February 1965 in Margate City, New Jersey, at the age of seventy-five.

Biography courtesy of Roughton Galleries, www.antiquesandfineart.com/roughton