The Renoir Returns: A Celebration of Masterworks

Monday, 15 August 2005 09:59

WASHINGTON, DC.-The Phillips Collection will present The Renoir Returns: A Celebration of Masterworks from The Phillips Collection, welcoming back to Washington, D.C., approximately 60 masterworks from an enormously successful four-year international tour. This special homecoming will mark the culmination of a major addition and renovation project that the Phillips began in 2003 to modernize and expand the institution, while maintaining the beloved qualities of one of the leading intimately scaled museums in the world. The Renoir Returns: A Celebration of Masterworks from The Phillips Collection - The Renoir Returns: A Celebration of Masterworks from The Phillips Collection presents key masterworks in the history of art that together express Duncan Phillips’ singular perspective on European art. The exhibition comprises European modern masterworks that Phillips acquired during his lifetime, including works by van Gogh, Cézanne, Monet, Degas, Picasso, Bonnard, Gauguin, and Klee, as well as several works by earlier masters whom Phillips felt anticipated the modern movements, such as Delacroix, Ingres, El Greco, and Chardin. Phillips saw modernism not as a break with the past, but as a continuation of it, and was committed to assembling a collection of works that he felt would resonate with one another, tying together historical masterworks with the art of his own time. This exhibition will include some of the most beloved works of the last two centuries, of significance for both their place in each artist’s oeuvre and their particular connection to Phillips and his museum. On view again will be the iconic work of The Phillips Collection, Luncheon of the Boating Party (1880-81), which Phillips called “the only Renoir I need”; van Gogh’s Entrance to the Public Gardens in Arles (1888), which Phillips purchased in 1930 to mark the transformation of his home and collection into a public museum; Cézanne’s Ginger Pot with Pomegranate and Pears (1890-93), believed to have been given by the artist to Claude Monet as a gift; Picasso’s The Blue Room (1901), with its mannered figure and the predominate palette of the artist’s Blue Period; and Paul Klee’s Picture Album (1937), one of 13 Klees in The Phillips Collection that have inspired contemporary artists such as Richard Diebenkorn, Kenneth Noland, and Gene Davis. The earlier masterworks—such as El Greco’s The Repentant St. Peter (c. 1600-05, or later), Chardin’s A Bowl of Plums (c. 1728), Delacroix’s Paganini (1831), and Ingres’ The Small Bather (1826)—provide the references and counterpoints that reflect Phillips’ singular perspective on the evolution of modernism.

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