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The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, in northwestern Massachusetts, has been open to the public since 1955. I’d heard people raving about the Clark for years. This summer, I finally visited it. It reminds me of the Frick Collection in New York: its works are top quality, but it’s small enough that you can manage to see everything in a day.

This post is available as a video at https://youtu.be/pgc-Vd38Hm8 .

Background of the Clark Art Institute

The Clark family fortune dates to the mid-1800s, when Isaac Merritt Singer engaged lawyer Edward C. Clark to defend patents for the first successful sewing machine. Clark became an equal partner in Singer’s company, which was soon the world’s leading manufacturer of sewing machines. By the 1860s, the Clark family had majority control of Singer & Company. They remained the leading shareholder until the company was sold a century later.

But Edward Clark also had other income. He bought extensive tracts of land on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, and in 1880 announced plans to build the first luxury apartment building in that area. The Dakota was owned by the Clarks until 1960. When Edward Clark died in 1882, he left an estate of $50 million (nearly $2 billion in 2023).

Edward’s grandson Robert Sterling Clark (who went by “Sterling Clark”) was born in 1877. He earned a civil engineering degree from Yale, fought in China’s Boxer Rebellion, and led a scientific expedition to northwestern China. When his mother died in 1909, Sterling and his brothers inherited a collection of paintings by notable artists such as Gericault, Gerome, Millet, Stuart, and Inness.

Sterling settled in Paris and met a charming French actress, Francine Clary, whom he married in 1919. He began buying art himself, purchasing Renaissance paintings and works by noted 19th-c. artists such as John Singer Sargent and Renoir. Eventually he owned 38 Renoirs.

Sterling was at first going to bequeath his art collection to Paris’s Petit Palais, then to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, then to the Metropolitan Museum. But Sterling’s parents and grandparents had connections with Williams College in Williamstown, MA, and eventually Sterling and Francine built a museum in Williamstown to house their collection. It opened to the public in 1955. Sterling died in 1956, Francine in 1960. (The facts above are from the detailed photographic timeline that hangs at the Clark.)

Visiting the Clark

When I visit a museum, I usually go through it a gallery at a time, meeting my husband after each one and talking about which work each of us liked best in that gallery. That won’t work here, because I took about 500 photos at the Clark, but didn’t keep track of when I moved from one gallery to another. So I’m just going to show you the works I liked best, century by century.

There are many, many, many more artworks at the Clark than I’m showing in these posts! You should visit it. On the one hand, it’s at the far northwestern corner of Massachusetts. On the other, Massachusetts isn’t large if you’re thinking in terms of New York, or Florida, or Arizona! The Clark is a 3-hour drive from Boston or New York City, and a mere 1.5 hours north of Olana, Frederic Church’s gorgeous home on the Hudson. (About which there will be blog posts presently.) I recommend Olana one day and the Clark the next, with an overnight stay at Bascom Lodge on the top of Mt. Greystone. The facilities aren’t fabulous but the views are. If you’re into hiking, allow time to do a section of the Appalachian Trail.

15th century

This is the only complete altarpiece by Piero della Francesca that lives in the United States. It’s painted in oil, possibly with some tempera as well. Tempera (water-based) was the paint of choice for Italians well into the 15th century. Oil paints, a newer medium developed in Northern Europe, allowed a wide range of vivid colors. The reds in the painting below wouldn’t have been possible in tempera. Italians only began using oil paints in the 1460s or 1470s, so this piece by Piero is an early example. On oil paints vs. tempera and fresco, see Innovators in Painting, Ch. 16.

Piero della Francesca was fascinated by mathematically calculated linear perspective, a new technique in the 15th century. (See Innovators in Painting, Ch. 18.) In this painting, Piero does his best to make the figures seem to stand within three-dimensional space. They look so … solid! More on this work here.

16th century

Jan Gossaert, Portrait of a Man, ca. 1524. The sitter is clearly wealthy and powerful (look at the rings on his hands, the heavy chain on his neck), but we don’t know for certain who he is. The Clark’s site suggests Philip of Burgundy, bishop of Utrecht, who was one of Gossaert’s patrons. More here. I like Gossaert’s portraits at least as much as those of Holbein the Younger. Holbein’s far more famous, but Gossaert has a similar knack for capturing the character of very distinctive individuals.

Next up, another Gossaert: Anna Van Bergen, ca. 1526-1530. Anna was the wife of Adolf of Burgundy, an admiral of the Netherlands and one of Gossaert’s patrons. Her wealth is indicated by expensive ermine sleeves, a collar of a different fur, and a bejeweled necklace and belt. She’s holding a slip of paper, which suggests that she can read and write – an unusual accomplishment for a woman in the 16th century. More here.

Yet another Gossaert: Portrait of a Gentleman, ca. 1530. I discussed another Gossaert portrait of approximately the same date (Portrait of a Merchant) at length in my talk at the Resurrecting Romanticism conference in October 2023. The Merchant has money and taste, to judge from his outfit and his jewelry … but this Gentleman is a man of both wealth and leisure. The embroidery on his hat and jacket glitters with gold, and gold chains hold his fur cape in place. Through the slashes in his jacket we can see a shirt that’s minutely embroidered. The gloves he holds are far too finely worked to be used for manual labor or warmth. More here.

The hands from these three Gossaert portraits are a great visual lesson in how much an artist can express by pose, color, and jewelry. Put your hands in these poses and think about how you feel.

17th century

Rembrandt van Rijn (or follower), Man Reading, ca. 1648. This may be a portrait, or it may be simply a painting done to explore facial expression. The style is typical of Rembrandt, and the Clarks purchased it as a work by him. Others have suggested it’s the work of one of Rembrandt’s followers. I’m inclined to believe by a follower, because the colors are far more cheerful than those on the undisputed Rembrandts I’ve seen. Whoever painted it, it’s a good study of a man intent on reading. More on it here.

Next week: works at the Clark Art Institute from ca. 1650-1700.

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