Portrait of Henry Hallam, F.R.S. (1777–1859).

Henry Hallam, the historian whose works on the Middle Ages and on constitutional and literary history established him as one of the foremost British historians of the early nineteenth century, appears in this 1845 portrait. Hallam's careful, judicial approach to history made him enormously influential, and his personal tragedy—the loss of his son Arthur, mourned by Tennyson in In Memoriam—made him a figure of public sympathy as well as scholarly respect.

Phillips captures the historian's features with the careful observation appropriate to a figure of intellectual distinction. The composition is dignified and restrained, conveying scholarly authority without theatrical embellishment. The handling is characteristically professional.