The Phillips Collection

The Phillips Collection is considered America's first museum of modern art, opened in 1921 by heir-collector Duncan Phillips inside his Dupont Circle townhouse. Phillips founded it as a memorial to his father and brother, buying works other institutions ignored - Bonnard, Klee, Rothko, Arthur Dove, and above all Pierre-Auguste Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party of 1881, long the collection's flagship. Mark Rothko designed a small meditation room here with four of his paintings. Visiting feels less like a museum and more like walking through a domestic suite of intimate galleries, with frequent rehangs, Sunday afternoon concerts in the Music Room, and focused special exhibitions that take small themes deeply seriously.