Rolls-Royce Celebrates 100 Years Of The Phantom, A Century Worth of Art History

The Story begins as many great stories do, not in silence but in style. One hundred years ago, a presence arrived on the roads, more than a car, less than a myth. Now, a century on, that silent motor artefact, known to the world as Phantom, marks its centenary not just as a machine of status, but as a constant companion in the evolving theatre of modern art.

The figures are legendary. Their works line the walls of the world’s great museums; their signatures ripple through culture like echoes. But behind their brushes and between their bold ideas was often one constant: a Rolls-Royce. Matisse and Picasso, Beaton and Bérard, even the ever-unpredictable Warhol, each, at some point, took sanctuary behind the whisper-quiet luxury of a Rolls-Royce cabin. Dame Laura Knight, meanwhile, transformed her vehicle into a mobile atelier, casting paint onto canvas with the same grace her Phantom glided across English racecourses. These passengers were also co-conspirators in a shared obsession with beauty.

Salvador Dalí, ever the surrealist showman, went further. Beyond riding in the marque, he mythologised it. In a 1934 interpretation for Les Chants de Maldoror, Dalí froze Phantom in time and terrain, depicting it stranded in a crystalline tundra, equal parts spectral and sublime. The result? A motor car as memento mori; a ghost in a frozen dream. Dalí's relationship with the Phantom wasn’t just visual. He carried its aura into his day-to-day life, bringing theatrical excess to the streets of New York, where in 1965 he crossed paths with an anxious young Andy Warhol. The encounter would ripple across pop culture. Warhol, who saw the iconography in soup cans and celebrities, had now met the living, breathing performance art that was Dalí.

In its many incarnations, eight generations to be precise Phantom has moved with the spirit of its time. Whether nestled beside Guggenheim or gliding through Rockefeller’s entourage, the car has never just been about movement, but about meaning.

And now, as Phantom reaches its 100th year, it doesn’t shy away from this heritage. Instead, it embraces it. In tribute to the energy of pop and surrealism, the marque has invited a modern artist to reinterpret the car’s silhouette, translating speed and silence into colour and chaos, a moving canvas for the twenty-first century. Long before brand collaborations became currency, Rolls-Royce embedded artistry into its DNA. In 1911, the Spirit of Ecstasy was born, not just a bonnet ornament, but a statement. Created by Charles Sykes, a fine artist of formidable talent, the figurine was sculpted not for trend but for timelessness. Her robes ripple in eternal motion. Her arms stretch like a prayer. And over 100 years later, she still leads.

Sykes' connection with Rolls-Royce came through The Hon. John Montagu, who commissioned artworks of his Silver Ghosts long before brand storytelling had a name. These early paintings set the tone. Rolls-Royce would not simply be built; it would be imagined, curated, and revered.

So what is Phantom at 100? A vehicle? Yes. But also a vessel, for stories, for icons, for revolutions in brushstroke and idea. It is both art object and patron, muse and memory. The roads it has travelled are paved not just in asphalt, but in oil paint and photographic emulsion. And as it enters its second century, the Phantom doesn’t look back, but becomes, once again, the canvas upon which the avant-garde writes its next chapter.