The Phillips Collection in Washington was America’s first museum dedicated to modern art. Established by Duncan Phillips and his mother, Eliza, to be a museum about modern art and its sources, the collection was a memorial to his father and older brother. Quite possibly the most significant piece in the collection, is Renoir’s ‘Luncheon of the Boating Party’. Phillips purchased the painting in 1923, believing that it would inspire visitors to come to the museum, saying “Such a picture creates a sensation wherever it goes”. Today, the collection includes over 3,000 works, ranging from masterpieces of French Impressionism and American Modernism to Contemporary art.