BGuthrie Photos: DC -- The Phillips Collection

DC -- The Phillips Collection:

Bruce Guthrie Photos Home Page: [Click here] to go to Bruce Guthrie Photos home page.

Recognize anyone? If you recognize specific folks (or other stuff) and I haven't labeled them, please identify them for the world. Click the little pencil icon

underneath the file name (just above the picture). Spammers need not apply.

Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

Accessing as Spider: The system has identified your IP as being a spider.
IP Address: 3.145.115.195 -- Domain: Amazon Technologies
I love well-behaved spiders! They are, in fact, how most people find my site. Unfortunately, my network has a limited bandwidth and pictures take up bandwidth. Spiders ask for lots and lots of pages and chew up lots and lots of bandwidth which slows things down considerably for regular folk. To counter this, you'll see all the text on the page but the images are being suppressed. Also, some system options like merges are being blocked for you.
Note: Permission is NOT granted for spiders, robots, etc to use the site for AI-generation purposes. I'm sure you're thrilled by your ability to make revenue from my work but there's nothing in that for my human users or for me.
If you are in fact human, please email me at guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can check if your designation was made in error. Given your number of hits, that's unlikely but what the hell.

Help? The Medium (Email) links are for screen viewing and emailing. You'll want bigger sizes for printing. [Click here for additional help]

Share: Facebook Twitter Digg
[1] TPC_111008_001.JPG	[2] TPC_111008_008.JPG	[3] TPC_111008_012.JPG
[4] TPC_111008_016.JPG	[5] TPC_111008_019.JPG	[6] TPC_111008_023.JPG
[7] TPC_111008_031.JPG	[8] TPC_111008_039.JPG	[9] TPC_111008_043.JPG
[10] TPC_111008_046.JPG	[11] TPC_111008_055.JPG	[12] TPC_111008_059.JPG
[13] TPC_111008_064.JPG	[14] TPC_111008_067.JPG	[15] TPC_111008_076.JPG
[16] TPC_111008_083.JPG	[17] TPC_111008_090.JPG	[18] TPC_111008_099.JPG
[19] TPC_111008_103.JPG	[20] TPC_111008_109.JPG	[21] TPC_111008_114.JPG
[22] TPC_111008_117.JPG	[23] TPC_111008_119.JPG	[24] TPC_111008_124.JPG
[25] TPC_111008_133.JPG	[26] TPC_111008_142.JPG	[27] TPC_111008_150.JPG
[28] TPC_111008_156.JPG	[29] TPC_111008_173.JPG	[30] TPC_111008_181.JPG
[31] TPC_111008_185.JPG	[32] TPC_111008_193.JPG	[33] TPC_111008_198.JPG
[34] TPC_111008_208.JPG	[35] TPC_111008_209.JPG	[36] TPC_111008_215.JPG
[37] TPC_111008_222.JPG	[38] TPC_111008_242.JPG	[39] TPC_111008_246.JPG
[40] TPC_111008_256.JPG	[41] TPC_111008_271.JPG	[42] TPC_111008_276.JPG
[43] TPC_111008_279.JPG	[44] TPC_111008_282.JPG	[45] TPC_111008_284.JPG
[46] TPC_111008_290.JPG	[47] TPC_111008_296.JPG	[48] TPC_111008_304.JPG
[49] TPC_111008_308.JPG	[50] TPC_111008_314.JPG	[51] TPC_111008_317.JPG
[52] TPC_111008_322.JPG	[53] TPC_111008_326.JPG	[54] TPC_111008_332.JPG
[55] TPC_111008_336.JPG	[56] TPC_111008_341.JPG	[57] TPC_111008_344.JPG
[58] TPC_111008_347.JPG	[59] TPC_111008_352.JPG	[60] TPC_111008_355.JPG
[61] TPC_111008_359.JPG	[62] TPC_111008_361.JPG	[63] TPC_111008_366.JPG
[64] TPC_111008_378.JPG	[65] TPC_111008_383.JPG	[66] TPC_111008_387.JPG
[67] TPC_111008_391.JPG	[68] TPC_111008_397.JPG	[69] TPC_111008_400.JPG
[70] TPC_111008_408.JPG	[71] TPC_111008_411.JPG	[72] TPC_111008_415.JPG
[73] TPC_111008_426.JPG	[74] TPC_111008_432.JPG	[75] TPC_111008_445.JPG
[76] TPC_111008_447.JPG	[77] TPC_111008_454.JPG	[78] TPC_111008_461.JPG
[79] TPC_111008_464.JPG	[80] TPC_111008_469.JPG	[81] TPC_111008_480.JPG
[82] TPC_111008_483.JPG	[83] TPC_111008_487.JPG

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. TPC_111008_019.JPG: Augustus Vincent Tack: Decorative Panels for the Music Room (May 7-December 31) * * In 1924, Duncan Phillips, the founder of The Phillips Collection, inaugurated the wood-paneled Music Room as a public gallery. The first exhibition was a special installation of paintings by the American artist Augustus Vincent Tack. Phillips later considered altering the Music Room into a barrel-vaulted space as a permanent setting for Tack's decorative abstractions. In 1928, he commissioned the artist to create a monumental mural cycle for the space, unified by a mystical sense of transcendence and universal order. Tack created twelve lunette-shaped paintings with gilded borders that were studies for murals suited to a barrel vault. He gave the works allegorical titles that suggest elements of Catholic mysticism, Neo-Platonism, and aesthetic formalism and developed an overall scheme that emphasizes color, line, and form. Phillips referred to the panels as "meditations." They are, in essence, a visual color poem about the evolution from chaos to harmony. The painted lunettes were installed in the unaltered Music Room to great fanfare in March 1930, with the artist John Marin praising them for their color and originality. Phillips was thrilled, but he had become ambivalent about permanent installations. He envisioned a more dynamic model for the museum as it entered its second decade, one that emphasized maximum flexibility for his growing collection. Although Phillips abandoned the idea of a room devoted to Tack's panels, he never quit championing the artist's work. Examples of Tack's abstractions have always been on view at the museum in changing installations, influencing painters such as Gene Davis, Sam Gilliam, Morris Louis, and Kenneth Noland.
2. TPC_111008_067.JPG: Vincent Van Gogh Entrance to the Public Gardens in Arles, 1888 A Lane in the Public Garden at Arles From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia A Lane in a Public Garden in Arles is an 1888 painting by Vincent van Gogh depicting a lane running through the public garden in Arles. The lane is surrounded by trees in different shades of green and yellow, as summer is being replaced by fall. The sky is blue and people are out walking on the lane enjoying the nice surroundings. A Lane in the Public Garden at Arles offers a harmonious vista where Vincent Van Gogh's exquisite command of colors allows him to blend the different shades of green and yellow with the blue of the sky and the stones of the lane.
3. TPC_111008_076.JPG: Georges Braque Plums, Pears, Nuts, and Knife, 1926
4. TPC_111008_083.JPG: Pierre Bonnard Woman with Dog, 1922
5. TPC_111008_090.JPG: Pierre Bonnard The Palm, 1926
6. TPC_111008_099.JPG: Pierre Bonnard Children and Cat, 1909
7. TPC_111008_109.JPG: Pierre-Auguste Renoir Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1880-81 Luncheon of the Boating Party From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Luncheon of the Boating Party (1881, French: Le déjeuner des canotiers) is a painting by French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir. It was purchased from the artist by the dealer-patron Paul Durand-Ruel and bought in 1923 (for $125,000) from his son by Duncan Phillips. It is currently housed in The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C.. It shows a richness of form, a fluidity of brush stroke, and a flickering light. Description The painting depicts a group of Renoir's friends relaxing on a balcony at the Maison Fournaise along the Seine river in Chatou, France. The painter and art patron, Gustave Caillebotte, is seated in the lower right. Renoir's future wife, Aline Charigot, is in the foreground playing with a small dog. On the table is fruit and wine. The diagonal of the railing serves to demarcate the two halves of the composition, one densely packed with figures, the other all but empty, save for the two figures of the proprietor's daughter Louise-Alphonsine Fournaise and her brother, Alphonse Fournaise, Jr, which are made prominent by this contrast. In this painting Renoir has captured a great deal of light. The main focus of light is coming from the large opening in the balcony, beside the large singleted man in the hat. The singlets of both men in the foreground and the table-cloth all work together to reflect this light and send it through the whole composition. Subjects depicted As he often did in his paintings, Renoir included several of his friends in Luncheon of the Boating Party. Among them are the following: * The seamstress Aline Charigot, holding a dog, sits near the bottom left of the composition. Renoir later married her. * Charles Ephrussi -- wealthy amateur art historian, collector, and editor of the Gazette des Beaux-Arts -- appears wearing a top hat in the background. The younger man to whom Ephrussi appears to be speaking, more casually attired in a brown coat and cap, may be Jules Laforgue, his personal secretary and also a poet and critic. * Actress Ellen Andrée drinks from a glass in the center of the composition. Seated across from her is Baron Raoul Barbier. * Placed within but peripheral to the party are the proprietor's daughter Louise-Alphonsine Fournaise and her brother, Alphonse Fournaise, Jr., both sporting traditional straw boaters and appearing to the left side of the image. Alphonsine is the smiling woman leaning on the railing; Alphonse, who was responsible for the boat rental, is the leftmost figure. * Also wearing boaters are figures appearing to be Renoir's close friends Eugène Pierre Lestringez and Paul Lhote, himself an artist. Renoir depicts them flirting with the actress Jeanne Samary in the upper righthand corner of the painting. * In the right foreground, Gustave Caillebotte wears a white boater's shirt and flat-topped straw boater's hat as he sits backwards in his chair next to actress Angèle Legault and journalist Adrien Maggiolo. An art patron, painter, and important figure in the impressionist circle, Caillebotte was also an avid boatman and drew on that subject for several works. Cleaning controversy The 1954 restoration by Sheldon and Caroline Keck of Luncheon of the Boating Party has generated a long-running controversy. The ArtWatch UK Journal 19 (Autumn 2002) quoted the art critic Alexander Eliot's recollections as Time's art critic at the time, when he repaired one day to The Phillips Collection: "to revisit an especially beloved image: Renoir's 'Luncheon of the Boating Party'. I found that this sunnily celebratory masterpiece had been moved from its central position to a dark side room, as if in shame, and I could easily understand why. Its blossomy colours appeared dried out, droopy and half-awry. The seated figure in the foreground had been reduced to corpse grey. Barging angrily into Duncan Phillips' office, I asked for an explanation. Tears misted the old gentleman's eyes. 'Well,' he told me mournfully, 'I sent the picture to our mutual friends - you know the restorers I mean. The best in the business, right?' Mr Phillips paused to wave away an imaginary fly. 'I'd asked them to iron out a small blister on the surface and then forward the canvas to Paris for a major exhibition at the Louvre. Deciding that my prize acquisition needed cleaning, they went ahead with that. The people at the Louvre at first refused to accept the resultant ruin as a Renoir! Fortunately we were able to put them straight because our friends had taken the precaution of filming their work on the canvas. I have a copy of the film, which you're welcome to view. In it you'll notice actual colour-stains coming off on the cotton swabs. But please, for God's sake, don't report this tragedy. It's too dreadful. " The campaigning body ArtWatch International has drawn attention to the cleaning of this picture, which it regards as unnecessary and having resulted in a loss of tone. The ArtWatch UK Journal 22 (Autumn 2007) quoted Sheldon Keck from his work 'Some Picture Cleaning Controversies: Past and Present' (1984): "In the 1950s, Mrs Keck and I attended a dinner party where an internationally known British connoisseur attacked the cleaning of paintings in general insisting that artists counted on the mellowing effects of time to enhance the harmony of their designs and colours. He was perhaps unaware that he echoed a 300 year old contention. One of the other guests inquired whether the gentleman had viewed The Phillips Collection's Renoir 'Boating Party' since it had been cleaned (by us, as most of those around the table knew). 'It is ruined,' he said, 'ruined... the harmony of the whole has been destroyed, the glazes have all been stripped away... I stood in front of it and I wept.' Defence was undertaken by Mrs Keck and if she may have exceeded normal dinner party proprieties, her statements were eminently accurate. We had photographically documented the painting, even made a color movie of our cleaning, and every solvent swab used on the surface had been saved in large jars. " Popular culture references * Actor Edward G. Robinson (1893-1973) is quoted as saying: "For over thirty years I made periodic visits to Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party in a Washington museum, and stood before that magnificent masterpiece hour after hour, day after day, plotting ways to steal it." * The painting was featured prominently in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's film Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain -- released in English as Amélie (2001). The most prominent reference is a comparison between the film's protagonist, Amélie, and the woman in the centre sipping a glass (Actress Ellen Andrée), seemingly gazing out of the canvas, uninterested, while everyone else is enjoying the day together. * A homage to this painting appears in the final panel of On the False Earths, the seventh volume of Jean-Claude Mézières and Pierre Christin's long-running comic book series Valérian and Laureline.
8. TPC_111008_124.JPG: Paul Cezanne Mont Sainte-Victoire, 1886-87 Mont Sainte-Victoire (Cézanne) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Mont Sainte-Victoire is a series of oil paintings by a French artist Paul Cézanne. Description Mont Sainte-Victoire is a mountain in France. Cézanne could see the mountain from his house, and it became the subject of a number of his paintings. These paintings belong to Post-Impressionism. Cézanne is good at analysis: he uses geometry to describe nature, and uses different colours to represent the depth of objects.
9. TPC_111008_133.JPG: Honore Daumier The Uprising, 1848 or later
10. TPC_111008_142.JPG: Gustave Courbet The Mediterranean, 1857
11. TPC_111008_150.JPG: Jean-Baptiste Chardin A Bowl of Plums, c 1728
12. TPC_111008_173.JPG: Claude Monet The Road to Vetheuil, 1879
13. TPC_111008_181.JPG: Berthe Morisot Two Girls, c 1894
14. TPC_111008_193.JPG: Alfred Sisley Snow at Louveciennes, 1874
15. TPC_111008_198.JPG: Paul Cezanne Self-Portrait, 1878-80
16. TPC_111008_215.JPG: Eugene-Louis Boudin Beach at Trouville, 1863
17. TPC_111008_222.JPG: Charles Despiau Head of Madame Derain, 1922
18. TPC_111008_271.JPG: Ralph Flint Metropolis, undated
19. TPC_111008_284.JPG: Childe Hassam Mount Beacon, 1916
20. TPC_111008_391.JPG: Vincent Van Gogh House at Auvers, 1890
21. TPC_111008_400.JPG: Paul Cezanne The Garden at Les Lauves, c 1906
22. TPC_111008_415.JPG: Georges Braque Still Life with Grapes and Clarinet, 1927
23. TPC_111008_426.JPG: Paul Cezanne Fields at Bellevue, 1892-95
24. TPC_111008_432.JPG: Henri Matisse Studio, Quai St. Michel, 1916
25. TPC_111008_454.JPG: Morris Louis Seal, 1959
26. TPC_111008_469.JPG: Alexander Calder The Hollow Egg, 1939
AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
Wikipedia Description: The Phillips Collection
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Phillips Collection is an art museum founded by Duncan Phillips in 1921 as the Phillips Memorial Gallery located in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Phillips was the grandson of James Laughlin, a banker and co-founder of the Jones and Laughlin Steel Company.

Among the artists represented in the collection are Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Gustave Courbet, El Greco, Georges Braque, Paul Klee, Winslow Homer, James McNeill Whistler, and Mark Rothko.

History:

The Phillips Collection, opened in 1921, is America’s first museum of modern art. Featuring a renowned permanent collection of nearly 2,500 works by American and European impressionist and modern artists, the Phillips is internationally recognized for both its incomparable art and its intimate atmosphere. It is housed in founder Duncan Phillips’ 1897 Georgian Revival home and two similarly scaled additions in Washington, D.C.’s Dupont Circle neighborhood.

Duncan Phillips (1886–1966) played a seminal role in introducing America to modern art. Born in Pittsburgh—the grandson of James Laughlin, a banker and co-founder of the Jones and Laughlin Steel Company — Phillips and his family moved to Washington, D.C. in 1895. He, along with his mother, established The Phillips Memorial Gallery after the sudden, untimely deaths of his father, Duncan Clinch Phillips (1838 – 1917), a Pittsburgh window glass millionaire and member of the fabled South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club of Johnstown Flood fame, and his brother, James Laughlin Phillips (May 30, 1884 - 1918).

Beginning with a small family collection of paintings, Phillips, a published art critic, expanded the collection dramatically. A specially built room over the north wing of the family home provided a public gallery space. With the collection exceeding 600 works and facing public demand, the Phillips family moved to a new home in 1930, turning the entire 21st Street residence into an art museum. From the beginning Phillips conceived of his museum as "a memorial…a beneficent force in the community where I live—a joy-giving, life-enhancing influence, assisting people to see beautifully as true artists see."

Duncan Phillips married painter Marjorie Acker in 1921. With her assistance and advice, Phillips developed his collection "as a museum of modern art and its sources," believing strongly in the continuum of artists influencing their successors through the centuries. His focus on the continuous tradition of art was revolutionary at a time when America was largely critical of modernism, which was seen as a break with the past. Phillips collected works by masters such as El Greco, calling him the "first impassioned expressionist"; Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin because he was "the first modern painter"; Francisco Goya because he was "the stepping stone between the Old Masters and the Great Moderns like Cézanne"; and Edouard Manet, a "significant link in a chain which began with Goya and which [led] to Gauguin and Matisse."

The museum is noted for its broad representation of both impressionist and modern paintings, with works by European masters such as Gustave Courbet, Pierre Bonnard, Georges Braque, Jacques Villon, Paul Cézanne, Honoré Daumier, Edgar Degas, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Klee, Manuel Robbe, Henri Matisse, Claude Monet, and Pablo Picasso. In 1923, Phillips purchased Pierre-Auguste Renoir's impressionist painting, Luncheon of the Boating Party (1880–81), the museum’s best-known work.

From the 1920s to the 1960s, Phillips would re-hang his galleries in installations that were non-chronological and non-traditional, reflecting the relationships he saw between various artistic expressions. He presented visual connections—between past and present, between classical form and romantic expression—as dialogues on the walls of the museum. Giving equal focus to American and European artists, Phillips juxtaposed works by Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins, Maurice Prendergast, James Abbot McNeill Whistler, and Albert Pinkham Ryder with canvases by Pierre Bonnard, Peter Ilsted and Edouard Vuillard. He exhibited watercolors by John Marin with paintings by Cézanne, and works by van Gogh with El Greco’s The Repentant St. Peter (circa 1600–05). Phillips’ vision brought together "congenial spirits among the artists," and his ideas still guide the museum today.

The Phillips Collection is also known for its groups of works by artists who Phillips particularly favored. For example, he was overwhelmed by Bonnard’s expressive use of color, acquiring 17 paintings by the artist. Cubist pioneer Braque is represented by 13 paintings, including the monumental still-life The Round Table (1929). The collection has an equal number of works by Klee, such as Arab Song (1932) and Picture Album (1937), as well as seven pieces by abstract expressionist artist Mark Rothko. The Rothko Room, the first public space dedicated solely to the artist’s work, was designed by Phillips in keeping with Rothko’s expressed preference for exhibiting his large, luminous paintings in a small, intimate space, saturating the room with color and sensation.

Throughout his lifetime, Phillips had the prescience and courage to acquire paintings by many artists who were not fully recognized at the time, among them Marin, Georgia O'Keeffe, Arthur Dove, Nicolas de Staël, Milton Avery and Augustus Vincent Tack. By purchasing works by such promising but unknown artists, Phillips provided them with the means to continue painting. He formed close bonds with and subsidized several artists who are prominently featured in the collection—Dove and Marin in particular—and consistently purchased works by artists and students for what he called his "encouragement collection." The museum also served as a visual haven for artists such as Richard Diebenkorn, Gene Davis, and Kenneth Noland. In a 1982 tribute to the museum, Noland acknowledged, "I’ve spent many hours of many days in this home of art. You can be with art in the Phillips as in no other place I know."

There is a Duncan Phillips story that is worth recounting. The founder is standing with Dr. Albert Barnes, before the Renoir masterpiece "Luncheon of the Boating Party" (see illustration). "That's the only Renoir you have, isn't it?" asked the fearsome Dr. Barnes, whose distinctive collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist fine art contains scores of Renoirs and is now the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. Phillips's reply was succinct: "It's the only one I need.”

When Duncan Phillips died in 1966, Marjorie succeeded him as museum director. Their son, Laughlin, became director in 1972. He led The Phillips Collection through a multi-year program to ensure the physical and financial security of the collection, renovate and enlarge the museum buildings, expand and professionalize the staff, conduct research on the collection, and make the Phillips more accessible to the public. In 1992, Charles S. Moffett, a noted author and curator, was named director. Moffett was directly involved with the presentation of several ambitious exhibitions during his six-year tenure, including the memorable "Impressionists on the Seine: A Celebration of Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party" in 1996.

Current director Jay Gates assumed leadership in 1998. Under his direction, The Phillips Collection continues to grow and broaden its presence in Washington, D.C., across the country, and internationally. To accommodate its ever-growing collection of art, audiences, and activities, the Phillips completed a major building project in April 2006. With 65 percent of the added 30,000 square feet located below ground, the expansion preserves the intimate scale and residential quality that distinguishes The Phillips Collection, as well as respects the character of the Dupont Circle neighborhood. The new spaces incorporate expanded galleries, among them the first to accommodate larger-scale post-1950s work; a 180-seat auditorium for lectures, films, and events; an outdoor courtyard; and a new shop and café.

The museum’s longstanding history of educational programming is in the building project as well. Since the museum’s early years, when art classes were held on the third floor of the house, significant attention has been given to educational outreach. Today, the museum features an active schedule of lectures, gallery talks, classes, parent/child workshops, and teacher training programs. It also reaches out to the community through initiatives such as Art Links to Literacy, combining programs for underserved students at District of Columbia Public Schools and their parents and caregivers with professional development for their teachers. These and other ventures are facilitated by new exhibition spaces for student art, an art activity room for hands-on education projects, and an art technology lab for developing interactive resources based on the museum’s educational programs.

The addition also makes possible The Phillips Collection Center for the Study of Modern Art, a new museum-based educational model. Undertaken in partnership with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, this interdisciplinary enterprise will bring together scholars from across academic fields in an ongoing forum for discussion, research, and publishing on modern art.
Bigger photos? To save server space, the full-sized versions of these images have either not been loaded to the server or have been removed from the server. (Only some pages are loaded with full-sized images and those usually get removed after three months.) I still have them though. If you want me to email them to you, please send an email to guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can email them to you, or, depending on the number of images, just repost the page again will the full-sized images.
Connection Not Secure messages? Those warnings you get from your browser about this site not having secure connections worry some people. This means this site does not have SSL installed (the link is http:, not https:). That's bad if you're entering credit card numbers, passwords, or other personal information. But this site doesn't collect any personal information so SSL is not necessary. Life's good!
Photo Contact: [Email Bruce Guthrie].