William Bromley, Speaker (copy after Michael Dahl)

Phillips's copy of Michael Dahl's portrait of William Bromley, a former Speaker of the House of Commons, demonstrates the common practice of producing institutional copies of earlier portraits for display in the institutions that wished to commemorate significant figures from their history. Dahl, the Swedish-born portrait painter who rivaled Kneller for supremacy in English portraiture at the turn of the eighteenth century, had produced the original, and Phillips's copy reproduced it for an institution that required the specific image of this particular Speaker. This kind of documentary copy work was a significant portion of portrait painters' practical activity, maintaining the visual record of institutional history across the centuries.

The copy faithfully reproduces the earlier portrait's composition and characterization while inevitably reflecting Phillips's own handling. The conventions of early eighteenth-century portraiture, as established by Dahl, are translated through Phillips's Regency-era technique. The result serves its documentary purpose of preserving the Speaker's likeness for the parliamentary collection.