Marjorie Phillips

American painter Marjorie Phillips was the niece of painter brothers Gifford and Reynolds Beal. She began drawing seriously at the age of five, encouraged to become an artist by her maternal uncles. From 1915-18, she studied at the Art Students League in New York. With her husband Duncan Phillips (1886-1966), she visited Europe, especially France in 1923, which sharpened her awareness of the possibilities inherent in impressionism and post-impressionism, as she studied Cézanne and Renoir. Phillips painted primarily landscapes and still life works. She and her husband collected artworks and Marjorie served as Associate Director of the Phillips Collection. After the death of her husband, she eventually became director.

Two well-known paintings by Phillips, depicting scenes of Baseball, were created long after World War II and thus do not qualify to be her 1932 entry. However, the painting already was on loan from what was then called the Phillips Memorial Gallery. Her husband Duncan was a supporter of the Washington Senators baseball team, and the family attended hundreds of games from their box.