Hussey, Philip (1713–83), painter, was born at Cloyne, Co. Cork, son of a clothier. His parents (names unknown) separated, and he spent his early life at sea where, Pasquin records, he was shipwrecked five times. He developed a taste for the fine arts and began to paint, taking as his subject the carved ornamental figureheads on the bows of ships. By the 1740s he was working as an artist in Dublin, and established himself as a portrait painter. Attribution of works to him is hampered by his tendency to sign on the back of the canvas, making his signature vulnerable to obliteration by subsequent relining. A small number of paintings can be securely attributed to him however, such as the full-length portrait ‘Master Edward O'Brien’, which is signed and dated 1746.
Pasquin noted that Hussey was a botanist and florist, which may account for the intricate detail with which he painted flowers in female portraits such as the double portrait ‘Mrs Sophia Tipping and her daughter Salisbury Wilhelmina’, which also shows his interest in lavish drapery. His evident love of elaborate detail is a striking aspect of his family portraits. He became a well known and popular figure amongst artistic and literary circles in Dublin and was noted for his lack of egotism despite his professional success. Something of his personal artistic taste is suggested by the fact he owned – and apparently valued highly – a self-portrait by James Latham (qv). He died at his house in Earl St., Dublin, in June 1783.