Burt Geer Phillips was born in Hudson, New York, in 1868. In 1883 he began five years study at the Art Students League and the National Academy of Design in New York, where he found work as an artist following his training. Opting for more schooling, Phillips left in 1894 for London and Paris, where he met the artist Joseph Henry Sharp and Ernest Blumenschein. Sharp never missed an opportunity to share tales of Taos, New Mexico, and in 1898, Phillips and Blumenschein bought a wagon and headed west. When their wagon broke near Taos, the men ended their trek and rented studios in the town. Though Blumenschein eventually went back east, Phillips stayed on, and was a founding member of the Taos Art Colony. Phillips was a collector of Native American artifacts. Pieces from his collection would often appear in his vivid, semi-romantic paintings of the Southwest. For more information on Burt Geer Phillips and other artists we represent, please visit the artist index on our gallery website |