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The Collection

 

The Collection

The Phillips Collection invites visitors to experience an extraordinary collection ranging from masterpieces of French impressionism and American modernism to art of the present day.

The museum's founder, Duncan Phillips, used words like "enchantment," "joy-giving," and "life-enhancing" when he wrote about the experience of seeing art. By displaying superb modern works in an intimate setting, he hoped to encourage visitors to appreciate new, even challenging, forms of artistic expression.

Unusually for his time, Phillips saw American modern artists as fully equal to their European counterparts, often hanging their works side by side. 

Today, the museum's collection includes nearly 3,000 works by American and European artists—among them, Degas, Cézanne, Gauguin, van Gogh, Bonnard, Matisse, Picasso, Braque, Klee, Homer, Whistler, Hopper, Stieglitz, O'Keeffe, Calder, Rothko, and many others. New pieces continue to be added, including a significant number of photographs in recent years.

Learn More

Listen to an audio tour of highlights of the permanent collection. 

Find information and images for works in the collection with the search box at upper right. Use search terms such as the artist's name, the name of the work, the date, or the medium, such as painting or sculpture. 
  
Explore more detailed information on American Art at The Phillips Collection, including learning and teaching suggestions for many works.

Paul Cézanne, Self-portrait, 1878-1880.

Francis Bacon, Study of a Figure in a Landscape, 1952. © 2008 The Estate of Francis Bacon / ARS, New York / DACS, London.