Philip Connard was born in Southport, England on 24 March 1875. Following school, he worked as a house painter while at the same time studying art part-time. He won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art, London, and in 1898 was awarded a British Institution Prize and went to Paris. Following his return to London he taught at Lambeth School of Art.

During World War One he initially served in the Army in France and then was appointed an official war artist attached to the Navy from 1916 to 1918.

After the war he produced decorations for the liner RMS ‘Queen Mary’ and painted murals for Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House and murals at Windsor Castle. Connard designed at least one poster for London Underground. He also illustrated at least two books - 'The Statue and the Bust' by Robert Browning (London: Allan Lane, 1900) and 'Marpessa' by Stephen Phillips (London: John Lane, 1900), and in 1932 he was one of 10 artists who was commissioned by the confectionery manufacturer Cadbury Bros. to design a chocolate box for them. Between 1898 and 1900 he contributed illustrations to the periodicals The Quartier Latin, Pall Mall Magazine, The Idler, and The Dome.

Connard was a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy in London from 1919 to (posthumously) 1959. He also exhibited at Agnew & Sons Gallery, Chenil Gallery, Beaux Arts Gallery, Coilnaghi & Co. Galleries, Grosvenor Gallery, Goupil Gallery, the Royal Watercolour Society, New English Art Club, Fine Art Society, Barbizon House, London Salon, Redfern Gallery, Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Royal Society of Portrait Painters, the Leicester Galleries, and the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers in London; the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool; Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts; Manchester City Art Gallery; Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin; and at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh.

He was elected a member of the New English Art Club (NEA) in 1909; an Associate of the Royal Academy (ARA) in 1918; a Royal Academician (RA) in 1925; a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours (RI) in 1927; and an Associate of the Royal Watercolour Society (ARWS) in 1933. He was also a member of the Council for Art and Industry in 1934, President of the Guildford Art Society from 1934 to 1946, and President of the President of The Southport Palette Club. He was Keeper of the Royal Academy Schools, and the principal tutor, from 1945 to 1949.

Connard lived at 17a Whitehead's Grove, Chelsea, London from 1919 to 1932 when he moved to Cholmondley Lodge Richmond, Surrey where he remained for the rest of his life. He died on 8 December 1958.

_{Text source: Art History Research net (AHR net)}