A native of New York, Bert Geer Phillips studied at the Art Students League and the National Academy of Design. In the 1890s, he studied at the Academie Julian in Paris. It was during this time that he established friendships with Ernest Blumenschein and Joseph Henry Sharp. Following his return to the US in 1897, he and Blumenschein shared a studio and, the following year, the pair went on a sketching trip to Colorado. They then purchased a covered wagon and proceeded south to New Mexico. A wheel broke on the wagon near Taos and Phillips opted to remain in Taos permanently.

In 1912, Phillips became one of six founding members of the Taos Society of Artists along with Blumenschein, Eanger Irving Couse, Joseph Henry Sharp, W. Herbert "Buck" Dunton, and Oscar Edmund Berninghaus.