Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute

Winslow Homer:
West Point, Prout's Neck

The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute , also known as The Clark for short , is an art museum with an affiliated research institute for art history in Williamstown , Massachusetts . Together with the neighboring Williams College , it also offers a two-year postgraduate course for art historians . The Clark Art Institute's important art collection includes works from the 14th to the beginning of the 20th century, with a focus on paintings by the Barbizon School and the French Impressionists .

history

Robert Sterling Clark (1877–1956) was one of the heirs of the Singer sewing machine company and thus acquired a considerable fortune and a small collection of paintings from the family. At the age of 35 he started building his own art collection. Together with his brother Stephen Carlton Clark , also an important collector, he traveled to Florence in 1912 and purchased the portrait of a lady from Domenico Ghirlandaio . Other paintings, mainly by Italian, Flemish and Dutch masters, followed in a short time. Sterling Clarke, who has lived in Paris since 1911, married the French actress Francine Clary (1876–1960) in 1919. Together they expanded the existing collection over the next 35 years, but shifted the main focus to French painters of the 19th century.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir ::
Sleeping girl with cat

The Clarks collection graced the walls of their New York City home for a long time before the couple began thinking about the future of art treasures. Initially, there were considerations to establish a museum in Cooperstown , New York State , where Sterling's childhood home was. A donation of the collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art was also at the center of considerations for some time before the Clarks decided in 1946 to convert their house on the Upper East Side of Manhattan into a museum, following the example of the Frick Collection . With the beginning of the Cold War , however, the collector couple developed a fear of attacks with nuclear weapons on New York City, whereupon they preferred to bring their collection to safety in a rural area. When looking for a suitable location, they chose Williamstown in the Berkshires in western Massachusetts. Sterling's father and grandfather had studied at Williams College there, and both later became curators there. In the fall of 1949, the first talks began with representatives of the city and Williams College. On March 14th the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute was founded. Why the collectors chose the designation Art Institute and not Collection or Museum is unclear, as the university areas of the institution were not intended when it was founded. However, the naming turned out to be farsighted in the following years, albeit unintentionally. The opening of the newly built museum took place on May 17, 1955 . Further extensions were added in the coming decades. In 1972 the graduate program in art history began. In addition to an extensive art library, it has had its own restoration workshop (Williamstown Regional Art Conversation Laboratory) since 1977. Lectures, colloquiums and conferences take place at the Clark Art Institute, and it also awards grants. The Clark collections have been continuously expanded since the founding couple's death and, like the annual special exhibitions, attract a large number of tourists to Williamstown, where the museum has now developed into an important economic factor.

building

In 1953 construction began for the Clark Art Institute based on a design by Daniel Perry. By 1955 a building in the style of neoclassicism made of white marble was inaugurated six months before Sterling Clark's death. After adding an extension for service facilities in 1964, a larger extension followed in 1973 under the direction of Pietro Bellushi.

In 2003, the architect Tadao Ando and the landscape architect Reed Hilderbrand received the order to plan a redesign of the previous buildings and the construction of several new buildings as well as the redesign of the outdoor area. In the first construction phase, in addition to new rooms for the restoration workshop, classrooms and a terrace café, more gallery rooms are to be created on around 3000 m², which will for the first time show works from cultures outside Europe and North America as well as art from the 20th century. In a second construction phase, the construction of a 6000 m² lake is planned, around which an auditorium, a conference center and new galleries for American arts and crafts are to be built.

Collections

Sterling Clark grew up with works of art, as his parents also had a small art collection. An example of this is the trumpeter of the hussars by Théodore Géricault who is now in the Clark Art Institute. The company's own collection was mainly created through acquisitions by both dealers Knoedler and Durand-Ruel, whereby Francine Clark had a great influence on the selection of works of art. In addition to paintings, the Clarks also collected drawings and prints, illustrated books, china, sculptures, and handicrafts. The collection of English silver work is particularly noteworthy. Before the Clark Art Institute opened in 1955, the works of art were rarely available to the public, as collectors rarely borrowed anything for exhibitions and most of the pieces in the collection were stored in depots. Since the founding of the Clark, the existing collections have been expanded and the photography department in particular has made numerous new acquisitions.

John Singer Sargent:
A Street in Venice

One of the earliest works in the museum is the altarpiece Madonna and Child and six portraits of saints by Ugolino di Nerio , created between 1317 and 1327 for the Church of Santa Croce in Florence. A short time later, the Enthroned Virgin with the Child and four angels by Piero della Francesca was created . The masterpieces of Dutch and Flemish painting in the Clarks include the Virgin and Child with Saints Elizabeth and John the Baptist by Quentin Massys , the marriage of Peleus with Thetis by Joachim Wtewael , the portrait of a noble gentleman by Jan Mabuse , the canon Gilles Joye von Hans Memling , Children with a Cat by Dirck Hals and the Landscape with Bridge by Jacob van Ruisdael . Important works of the French school are a landscape with the pilgrim Jacob by Claude Lorrain , The Warrior by Jean-Honoré Fragonard , a portrait of a man by Hyacinthe Rigaud and Vulcanus hands over weapons to Venus for Aeneas by François Boucher . English painting is represented with Thomas Gainsborough's portrait of Elisabeth and Thomas Linley and William Turner's picture Flares in rough seas .

The largest part of the collections consists of works of art from the 19th century. You can see the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome by Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot , the handicraft lesson by Jean-François Millet . Nymph and Satyr by William Adolphe Bouguereau , The Snake Charmers by Jean-Léon Gérôme , the Women of Amphissa by Lawrence Alma-Tadema, and Alfred Stevens ' The Countess and Memories and Repentance . Impressionist painting has a special place in the museum. The Clark Art Institute owns 37 works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir alone , with Sleeping Girl with a Cat , In Concert and a Self-Portrait being among the better-known works. Edouard Manet's interior in Arcachon , a portrait of Mery Laurent and a still life with moss roses in a vase are on view at Clarks . The Clark Art Institute has a duck pond and a view of Rouen Cathedral by Claude Monet and a dance class and a self-portrait by Edgar Degas . Berthe Morisot's painting The Bath, Girl Tidying Her Hair and Camille Pissarros The River Oise near Pontoise and The Port of Rouen are just as much a part of the collection as the Carmen by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and the painting Young Christian in Prayer by Paul Gauguin and women with a dog by Pierre Bonnard .

American painting of the late 19th century can also be seen with numerous masterpieces in the Clark Art Institute. These include by John Singer Sargent works Fumée d'Ambre Gris , A Street in Venice and the portrait of Carolus-Duran , of Mary Cassatt work Mother and Child and The bullfighter offer Panale and by George Inness a view of his home in Montclair . Furthermore, the pictures The Scout: Friends or Foes and Dismounted: The Fourth Troopers Moving the Led Horses by Frederic Remington and several landscape views by Winslow Homer can be seen.