S. George Phillips

"Point Pleasant"

c. 1920

A magazine illustrator early in his career for McCalls and Ladies Home Journal, Samuel George Phillips later devoted himself to portraiture and landscape painting as part of the Pennsylvania Impressionist School, artists who painted in Bucks County after 1915 and were much influenced by Daniel Garber. Of this group, it was written that the earlier Bucks County/New Hope style of Impressionism had been diluted by modernist influences and that "Generally these painters were not as original or creative as the earlier painters, and in fact their work was highly derivative of the art that preceded them in Bucks County." (Folk 31) However, Phillips, a student of Garber's at the Pennsylvania Academy, was described as one of three Garber students whose work "best represent his influence in Bucks County. . . . His work represents some of the finest adaptations of Garber's style." (Folk 102) Other teachers who were influences on Phillips' mostly traditional style were William Merritt Chase, Cecilia Beaux, and Hugh Breckenridge. But judging by his painting, Point Pleasant, Pennsylvania (circa 1920), Phillips did some experimentation with modernism as the work was described as having "an energetic all-over pointalist technique. The entire canvas is composed of tiny brightly colored dots and dashes of pigment." (Folk 102) Samuel George Phillips had studios in New York City, Philadelphia, and also lived in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Memberships included the Philadelphia Art Club. The Pennsylvania Academy was an exhibition venue for the years 1913, 1920-24, 1932 and 1937. He also exhibited work at the Corcoran Gallery and the National Academy of Design.