Family in a Spring Landscape 

How do you feel looking at this painting? This is ‘Family in a Spring Landscape’, an oil painting by Marjorie Acker Phillips (1894-1985). Phillips was an American painter and art collector known for her Impressionist style. She graduated the Manhattan Art Students League in 1918. This painting depicts a serene green field with delicate flowerbeds. Along the border of the field are abstractly curved trees or bushes. We see rolling hills in the distance, nestled under the pale sky. The forms have been simplified, creating a pleasing and dreamlike atmosphere. In the flowerbeds, Phillips has included blooming plants with pale orange and white petals. A wooden wicker bench occupies the left corner of the canvas, while a woman in a white dress stands serenely on the right side. She has her back turned to the viewer and holds a wicker basket under her arm. Also in the garden are four young children dressed in spring colours. The pastel colour palette provides a sense of subtle joy. Marjorie Acker Phillips was co-founder of the Phillipps Collection, a huge museum in Washington D.C. The gallery opened in 1921, and now houses works by artists such as Renoir, Monet, Rothko, and Van Gogh. Phillips enjoyed sixteen exhibitions at the gallery during her lifetime, including a landmark solo exhibition in 1925. Her work was also displayed in the National Gallery of Art, Tate Britain, and Boston Museum of Fine Arts. This was huge for a woman in the 1920s! Phillips practiced painting every morning in her studio in Washington D.C. Many of her paintings display her love of nature through their idealistic representation of natural landscapes. She said, ‘I didn’t want to paint depressing pictures.’