Marjorie Phillips
Marjorie Phillips
Duncan Phillips's wife, Marjorie Acker Phillips (1894–1985), was both an artist and her husband's partner in developing The Phillips Collection. Brought up in New York state, she became a painter despite her father's objections, traveling daily from Ossining to the Art Students League in New York City. She later wrote that she and her sister went to the school in alternating years because they were needed at home.
In 1920, she met Duncan Phillips at an exhibition of his collection in New York. They married the next year, not long before The Phillips Collection opened to the public. Marjorie Phillips painted almost every morning, running the household and assisting with the collection during the rest of the day. She was the museum's associate director from 1925 until her husband's death in 1966, when she became the director. (The couple's son, Laughlin, succeeded her in 1972.)
Marjorie Phillips's works were exhibited both at the Phillips and in other galleries. She was most identified with her painting Night Baseball, which depicts Joe DiMaggio at bat against the Washington Senators in 1951. Accustomed to day games, she later wrote she was "thrilled" by the changing colors of the night sky. Night Baseball became something of an icon in the city after the Senators left in 1971. "They can take away the team," wrote the Washington Post in 1985, "but they haven't been able to take away the painting."
Marjorie Phillips, Night Baseball, 1951
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