Family Ties

Painting of a woman on a horse at a circus by Gifford Beal

Gifford Beal, Center Ring, 1922. Oil on canvas, 22 x 26 1/8 in. Acquired 1922. The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC

One of my favorite paintings in the permanent collection is Gifford Beal’s Center Ring (1922). I am always drawn to it when I am perusing the second floor galleries—there’s just something about it. It feels alive. If there is one painting I would love to see come alive (à la Night at the Museum) it would be this. It would be like…going to the circus.

Did you know that Gifford Beal was actually the uncle of Marjorie Phillips, Duncan Phillips’s wife? It seems artistic talent ran in the family!

Jane Clifford, Marketing Intern

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