Philip Richard Morris was born at Devonport where his father practised as an engineer and iron founder. He was educated in Berwick-upon-Tweed before moving with the family to London. It was William Holman Hunt who persuaded Phillips father to let him pursue a career as an artist and he entered the Royal Academy Schools at the age of nineteen. He won the silver medal for the best drawing from life in 1855 and two further silver medals the following year. His painting The Good Samaritan was awarded a gold medal and a travelling scholarship to France and Italy.

Morris exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1838-1902, his subjects were mostly genre and portraits although he executed a few historical and biblical subjects. He was much sought after as a portraitist attracting commissions from amongst others Mr and Mrs Frederick Leyland, Daniel Adamson, Chairman of the Committee of the Manchester Ship Canal and Lady Berwick. It was children however, that were his speciality, the faces of which filled the walls of the Academy year after year. Sunday Best is redolent of the artists ability at its height in capturing the playful innocence of childhood.

Morris attracted a number of influential patrons including Lady Burdett-Coutts as well as fellow artists Augustus Leopold Egg and Thomas Creswick who both had pictures by him in their collections. He retired a satisfied and contented man with election as a Royal Academician two years before he died.