Biography
Ewan Maurice Godfrey van Zwanenberg-Phillips (born Kensington, London 1914 - d. Marsh Farm, Thorington, Saxmundham, Suffolk, UK 1994) was the son of Godfrey van Zwanenberg-Phillips (1886-1955), of Dutch-Jewish origon who was a solicitor and opened an art gallery in Duke Street, St James's, London, and his wife Rose Dorothy née Jacobs (1886-1986), a model for both Augustus John and Jacob Epstein, who married in Hampstead, London in 1912. After leaving Epsom College in 1931, Ewan spent a year at Goldsmiths' College of Art in Lewisham, where his contemporaries included Merlyn Evans (1910-1973) and Ewan's first wife Betsy Blake. He then became one of the first students at the newly opened Courtauld Institute of Art, under the aegis of Anthony Blunt (1907-1983). During the Second World War he served in the Intelligence Corps, mostly in Mombasa and Mauritius and, after hostilities, applied to Anthony Blunt for a post in 'Monuments, Fine Art and Archives', the unit dealing with the retrieval of lost and looted works of art. After a short time, with the rank of captain, he was posted to take over as officer-in-charge of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein, where for three years he worked with German museum officials. In 1948 he obtained the position as the first director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London, but in 1953 resigned and turned his attention to art dealing, working for some time on his own account before joining the Kaplan Gallery and in 1965, together with his second wife, opened his own gallery in Maddox Street, London. He married twice, in 1936 at Kensington, Betsy Blake (1910-1995) and secondly at St Pancras, London in 1972, Kathleen Grant (died 2009). he was an art historian and consultant, dealer in 19th-20th century paintings and sculpture but not an artist althopugh he was a member of the Beccles Society of Artists (1977-1990), being described as a 'member & exhibitor'.