International Tour of The Age of Impressionism: Great French Paintings from the
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute Will Conclude at Museum of Fine Arts,
Houston, December 2013 through March 2014
Renowned collection of 73 French paintings, by Renoir, Degas, Monet, Manet and Toulouse-Lautrec,
among others, from the Clark
Arrives in Houston following presentations in Europe, Asia and North America
HOUSTON—July 2013—This winter, the Museum of Fine Arts,
Houston (MFAH), will present The Age of Impressionism: Great
French Paintings from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art
Institute, showcasing the Clark’s renowned holdings of French
Impressionist painting. The exhibition features 73 paintings by
artists such as Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Pierre-
Auguste Renoir, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro and Alfred
Sisley, as well as Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Jean-François
Millet, Jean-Léon Gérôme, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Henri de
Toulouse-Lautrec and Pierre Bonnard, among others. The exhibition
will be on view at the MFAH from December 22, 2013, through
March 23, 2014.
The Clark launched its collection tour in early 2011 at the Palazzo
Reale in Milan, coinciding with a three-year expansion of its
Williamstown, Massachusetts facility. The MFAH is only the
second U.S. museum to host the exhibition. The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, initially the
exclusive American venue, displayed it in spring 2012. Houston was recently added as a final U.S. site
following the conclusion of the Asian leg of the tour. To date, the tour has been viewed by more than 1.6
million people around the world.
“The Clark is delighted to have this opportunity to bring the exhibition back to the United States to
complete the world tour.
After the exceptional
welcome we experienced
in Fort Worth, we look
forward to having the
opportunity to share our
collection with the people
of Houston where we
know that these great
works will find a
receptive and appreciative
audience,” said Clark
director Michael Conforti.
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“It’s a spectacular exhibition and we are thrilled to have the chance to present the show in Houston,” said
Gary Tinterow, MFAH director. “The Clarks were some of the finest collectors of their time, and their
distinctive sensibility and taste is evident in this remarkable selection of some of the most renowned
paintings in the history of nineteenth-century French painting.”
Most of the works in the collection were acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark between 1910 and 1950.
Sterling Clark, an heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune, began collecting art in Paris after a
distinguished career in the United States Army. The couple assembled their collection based on their
personal tastes, amassing paintings, silver, sculpture, porcelain, drawings and prints for their homes in
Paris and New York. In 1950, the Clarks decided to create a permanent, public home for their collection.
Drawn by the setting of the surrounding Berkshires and the appeal of its proximity to the academic
community of Williams College, they settled on a 140-acre site in Williamstown, Massachusetts. The
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute opened in 1955. Since its inception, the Institute has pursued a
dual mission as both a museum and a center for research and higher education in the visual arts.
The 73 paintings by 25 artists to be exhibited span 70 years and not only tell the story of the Clarks’
devotion and passion for collecting but of painting in nineteenth-century France, from the Orientalist
works of Gérôme to the Barbizon paintings of Corot and Rousseau to the Impressionist masterpieces of
Manet, Degas, Monet, Renoir, Sisley and Pissarro, and concludes with the early modern output of
Toulouse-Lautrec and Bonnard. Portraits, landscapes, marines, still lifes and scenes of everyday life are all
represented.
Catalogue
A catalogue to accompany the exhibition is published by Skira Rizzoli, with editions in at least five
languages. The 240-page publication features 131 color illustrations with essays by James A. Ganz and
Richard R. Brettell.
Exhibition Schedule
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston December 22, 2013 – March 23, 2014
Shanghai Museum September 19 – December 1, 2013
Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Kobe June 8 – September 1, 2013
Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, Tokyo February 9 – May 26, 2013
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts October 8, 2012 – January 20, 2013
Royal Academy of Arts, London July 7 – September 23, 2012
Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth March 11 – June 17, 2012
Fundación “La Caixa,” Barcelona November 17, 2011 – February 12, 2012
Musée des Impressionnismes, Giverny July 13 – October 31, 2011
Palazzo Reale, Milan March 2 – June 19, 2011
The Clark Collection
Sterling and Francine Clark personally acquired most of the paintings that form the basis of the Clark’s
collection. From the 1910s until the 1950s, the Clarks assembled an outstanding collection of European
and American paintings, sculpture and drawings, as well as British silver and European porcelain. The
Clark is best known for its collection of French Impressionist paintings, including more than 30 works by
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, which take their place within a wider ensemble of masterworks that date from the
Renaissance to the end of the nineteenth century. Although the collection has expanded greatly since the
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opening of the Clark in 1955, including a growing collection of early photography, the scope and
character continues to represent the taste and interests of the founders.
The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute
The Clark is one of the few major art museums that also serves as a leading international center for
research and scholarship. The Clark presents public and education programs and organizes
groundbreaking exhibitions that advance new scholarship, and its research and academic programs include
an international fellowship program and conferences. The Clark, together with Williams College,
America’s foremost liberal arts college, sponsors one of the nation’s leading master’s programs in art
history. Its 140-acre campus in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts includes Stone Hill Center,
designed by Tadao Ando and opened in 2008, which houses galleries, meeting and classroom facilities,
and the Williamstown Art Conservation Center. The Clark is currently completing the final phase of a
campus expansion program that includes construction of a new Ando-designed visitor center and the
renovation of its museum building and the Manton Research Center, which houses the Clark’s library.
About the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH)
Founded in 1900, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, is among the 10 largest art museums in the United
States. Located in the heart of Houston’s Museum District, the MFAH comprises two gallery buildings, a
sculpture garden, theater, two art schools and two libraries, with two house museums, for American and
European decorative arts, nearby. The encyclopedic collection of the MFAH numbers some 65,000 works
and embraces the art of antiquity to the present.
Media Contacts
Mary Haus, Director of Marketing and Communications
Amy Lowman, Publicist
Vanessa Ramirez-Sparrow, Marketing and Communications Assistant
Vramirez-sparrow@mfah.org, 713.639.7554
Illustrations
1. Pierre-Auguste Renoir, A Box at the Theater (At the Concert), 1880, oil on canvas, Sterling and
Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts.
2. Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas, Dancers in the Classroom, c. 1880, oil on canvas, Sterling and Francine
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts.