The cherry blossoms on the Mall vanished in an early April downpour and frost nipped the buds on the magnolias between the East and West Buildings of the National Gallery, but there were still visible signs of spring in Washington, in the form of festive commemorative exhibitions at two of the Capitol’s most distinguished institutions. At the Phillips Collection, “The Renoir Returns” celebrated the 120th anniversary of the birth of its founder, Duncan Phillips, and the 85th anniversary of its opening as the first museum of modern art in the United States.[1] The occasion was marked by a reinstallation, after a four-year absence, of some of the Phillips’s best known European works— including the much loved, irresistible Pierre Renoir, Luncheon of the Boating Party (1880–1881). Elsewhere in Washington, at the National Gallery, another kind of milestone was acknowledged by...

 

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