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Another Dimension
Dead Bird, by the influential
19th-century American artist Albert Pinkham Ryder (1847–1917), was first
seen by Duncan Phillips no later than 1916 but was not purchased for the
collection until it became available a decade later. The major scholarly
catalog of The Phillips Collection, The Eye of Duncan Phillips: a Collection
in the Making (1), calls Dead Bird "one of
Ryder's most powerful images," noting that it "explores a recurrent
illusory theme: the coexistence of the corporeal and the ethereal,"
and that "[s]uch starkly realistic details as the rigidly curled
claws, rendered in heavy impasto, and the subtle textured contrasts of
plumage and beak, create a moving evocation of suffering and death."
The Phillips Collection, Washington,
DC. Reproduced with permission.
Influenza and the Origins
of The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC
David M. Morens*
and Jeffery K. Taubenberger†
*National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA; and †Armed Forces
Institute of Pathology, Washington, DC, USA
Suggested
citation for this article
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Click to view
enlarged image
Duncan Clinch Phillips, Jr (left), his father Major
Duncan Clinch Phillips (seated), and his brother James Laughlin
Phillips...
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The two Phillips brothers were so inseparable that when James, the older,
was ready to leave home for Yale in 1902, he waited 2 years so that Duncan,
the younger, could graduate from secondary school and accompany him. The
brothers, who were full of energy and talent, spent their early years
in Pittsburgh, where their maternal grandfather, James Laughlin Phillips,
had achieved success as a banker and cofounder of the Jones and Laughlin
Steel Company. Seeking a milder climate because of his health, the boys'
father, Major Duncan Clinch Phillips, relocated the family to Washington,
DC. In college, Duncan (the son) was elected an editor of the Yale Literary
Magazine. Soon after college, James was appointed assistant treasurer
of the Republican Party. Both developed a passionate love of contemporary
art, and in 1916 their efforts to identify and purchase modern paintings
had become so successful that James requested an annual stipend of $10,000
from their parents for the purchase of works of art for their growing
collection.
But war had already broken out in Europe, and in 1917 the United States
entered it. The brothers' patriotism overtook them, and they tried to
enlist, even though they were pacifists at heart. Both were rejected for
service. Duncan, turned down by both the Army and the Navy, was 30–40
pounds under the desired weight for his height, which suggested to recruiters
the possibility of a chronic disease he in fact did not have. James had
had prior bouts of pneumonia, and his military rejection may have been
related to questions about his pulmonary status. Disappointed, James nonetheless
arranged to marry his sweetheart Alice, with Duncan as best man.
But as was the case for so many in those dark years, the world was beginning
to unravel. Their father died suddenly not long after the wedding. Surrounded
by war and loss, James and Alice moved to Chevy Chase, Maryland, near
the headquarters of the American Red Cross, where James became associate
director of the Bureau of Personnel, in charge of applications for overseas
war service. Then, in the fall of 1918, the "Spanish flu" struck
James, and on October 21, he died in the family home in nearby Washington,
DC. Her son's death broke the health of their mother, who became a semi-invalid.
His secure world shattered, Duncan's health broke down too, and he gave
in to despair.
"There came a time when sorrow all but overwhelmed me," he
later wrote. "Then I turned to my love of painting for the will to
live. Art offers two great gifts of emotion—the emotion of recognition
and the emotion of escape. Both emotions take us out of the boundaries
of self…. So in 1918 I incorporated the Phillips Memorial Gallery… to
create a Memorial worthy of… my father… and my brother, James Laughlin
Phillips, an idealist… a keen student of men and social conditions—a broad-minded,
warm-hearted, lovable and very noble American" (2).
And so as a direct consequence of the death of his brother James from
influenza, the 32-year-old Duncan Clinch Phillips, Jr (1886–1966) dedicated
his life to creating a living memorial to him and to their father, and
to establishing one of the finest public museums of modern art in the
world. The collection, assembled over the next 5 decades, showed his remarkable
taste, vision, and prescience in recognizing great works before others
had suspected their greatness. Duncan's creative expression of feeling,
the product of an artistic spirit, is reminiscent of similar creative
expressions in literary form: the beautiful stories of Thomas Wolfe and
Katherine Anne Porter, both of whom wrote about death and suffering from
influenza. Wolfe's remarkable scene in Look Homeward, Angel (3)
records the death of his own brother Benjamin from Spanish influenza,
2 days before the death of James Phillips. In Pale Horse, Pale Rider (4),
Porter wrote a surrealistic but harrowing account of her own near death
from influenza in 1918 and her belated discovery of the death from influenza
of the lover who had cared for her. In each case, unbearable tragedy and
loss were ennobled by art.
The collection assembled by Duncan Phillips and his wife Marjorie, herself
a painter, focuses on modern art and its sources. The nearly 2,500 items
included works by many now-famous 20th-century artists (van Gogh, Degas,
Homer, Kandinsky, Klee, Matisse, O'Keeffe, Rothko) as well as earlier
artists whose work Phillips believed anticipated modern art (Chardin,
Goya, El Greco, Daumier). Phillips also championed many artists who were
not well known at the time (Milton Avery, Pierre Bonnard, Karl Knaths,
John Graham, Nicolas de Staël) and sometimes provided stipends to them
(Arthur Dove, Augustus Vincent Tack).
Today The Phillips Collection is still housed in the family home, where
James died, at 21st and Q Street, in northwest Washington, DC. The building
itself is a work of architectural accomplishment, built in Georgian Revival
style by Hornblower and Marshall in 1897. The paintings are exhibited
in a warm intimate setting that encourages reflection and contemplation.
Even though The Phillips Collection was conceived in sorrow and loss,
Duncan Phillips wanted the viewing experience to be "joy-giving and
life-enhancing" (1).
Acknowledgments
We thank Jay Gates
and Karen Schneider for making available the Ryder painting, the Phillips
photograph, biographical materials on Duncan and James Phillips, and
for their help in preparing this piece.
References
- Tebow E. Albert Pinkham Ryder (1847–1917). In: Passantino
ED, editor. The eye of Duncan Phillips: a collection in the making.
3. The American vision. Part I: The American tradition and American
impressionism. New Haven (CT): The Phillips Collection in association
with Yale University Press; 1999; p. 141–5.
- Phillips D. More or less autobiographical. In: Phillips D. A collection
in the making. Washington: E. Weyhe; 1926. p. 3–4.
- Wolfe T. Look homeward, angel: a story of the buried life. New York:
Scribner's; 1929.
- Porter KA. Pale horse, pale rider; three short novels. New York: Harcourt,
Brace & Co.; 1939.
Suggested citation
for this article:
Morens DM, Taubenberger
JK. Influenza and the origins of The Phillips Collection, Washington,
DC. Emerg Infect Dis [serial on the Internet]. 2006 Jan [date cited].
Available from http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol12no01/05-1443.htm
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