The Phillips Collection

The Phillips Collection is an art museum with a collection that includes paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Gustave Courbet, El Greco, Vincent van Gogh, Henri Matisse, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, and other leading artists.

A Virtual Tour of The Phillips Collection

• “Luncheon of the Boating Party” by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
• “The Repentant Saint Peter” by El Greco
• “The Repentant St. Peter” by Francisco Goya
• “Mont Sainte-Victoire” by Paul Cézanne

Highlights of The Phillips Collection

“Luncheon of the Boating Party” by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

“Luncheon of the Boating Party” by Pierre-Auguste Renoir depicts a group of Renoir’s friends relaxing on a balcony at the Maison Fournaise restaurant, along the Seine river in Chatou, France.

All of the figures in the painting have been identified, and their names are known. Renoir’s future wife, Aline Chariot, is in the foreground playing with a small dog.

The diagonal of the railing serves to demarcates the two halves of the composition, one full of figures, the other showing the landscape except for the two figures which are made prominent by this contrast.

In this painting, Renoir has skillfully captured flickering light with a fluidity of brush stroke.

“The Repentant Saint Peter” by El Greco

“The Repentant Saint Peter” by El Greco shows the saint in tearful repentance with the “Keys of Heaven” tied around his waist. El Greco painted at least six different autograph variants throughout his career in Spain.

In this painting, St Peter raises his tear-filled eyes to Heaven. His hands joined in prayer. The background scene on the left represents the Magdalen returning from the empty tomb after receiving the announcement of Christ’s resurrection from an angel.

Theologians of the Counter-Reformation used the tears of Saint Peter as a way of drawing a parallel between the saint’s weakness and mortal man.

The tearful image was used to elicit an emotional response from the believer for the church. El Greco made this subject, which was new in the Counter-Reformation period, one of his specialties.

This image of St Peter by El Greco is always shown with white hair and beard, and he often wears his yellow cloak over a blue tunic.

“The Repentant St. Peter” by Francisco Goya

“The Repentant St. Peter” by Francisco Goya shows the saint in tearful repentance with the “Keys of Heaven.” In this painting, St Peter raises his tear-filled eyes to Heaven, and his hands are joined in prayer. 

This image of St Peter is reminiscent of the earlier El Greco paintings, which also show the saint with white hair and beard, and his yellow cloak over a blue tunic.

In the Goya’s version, the saint is shown balder and much heavier set than the El Greco elongated and austere depictions.

Goyer painted this image four years before his death, during a period of seclusion when his work became progressively darker and pessimistic. 

In Goya’s late period, he was disillusioned by the political and social developments in Spain, and he lived in near isolation. Goya eventually abandoned Spain in 1824 to retire to the French city of Bordeaux.

“Mont Sainte-Victoire” by Paul Cézanne

“Mont Sainte-Victoire” by Paul Cézanne is part of the “Mont Sainte-Victoire” series of paintings. Cézanne enjoyed a magnificent view of the soaring mountain from across the valley and painted many different versions.

Cézanne first painted Mont Sainte-Victoire in 1870, beginning his decades-long fascination with the subject. 

Paul Cézanne created more than thirty paintings and watercolors of Mont Sainte-Victoire.