Past Exhibitions
Collecting the Impressionists:
Masterpieces from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute
Phoenix Art Museum is proud to host a special, seven-week engagement that features 12 exceptional paintings by the Impressionist masters and some of the most familiar names in art – Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, Berthe Morisot, and Edouard Manet. It is a unique opportunity to experience singular masterpieces, here in our own community. The exhibition is included with Museum general admission.
From stunning landscapes by Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro to one of Edgar Degas’ finest paintings of a ballet rehearsal, from a figure study by Berthe Morisot and a still-life by Edouard Manet to the elegance of a Renoir portrait, this exhibition showcases the best in French Impressionism from one of the most impressive collections in the world. It was amassed by Sterling and Francine Clark – the scion of the Singer Sewing Machine fortune and his French-born wife – and is now housed in the museum they founded 50 years ago in Williamstown, Massachusetts, the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Many of these outstanding works of art have never before left the Clark.
THE PAINTINGS
Edgar Degas... Perhaps the most familiar painting on view, The Dancing Lesson was painted around 1880 by Degas, a frequent visitor to the Paris Opéra and observer of the corps de ballet rehearsals backstage. He made hundreds of sketches of dancers tying their shoes, resting from their practices, or waiting in the wings to perform. This classroom picture emphasizes the various routines of their day.
The Dancing Lesson, Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas, c. 1880. Oil on canvas. © Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, 1955.562.
Edouard Manet... Moss Roses in a Vase, 1882, is one of a number of quickly-painted still lifes that he created in the few years before his death in 1883. His fluent handling of the paintbrush allowed him to capture both the ephemeral quality of the roses and the distorting effects of glass and water.
Claude Monet... The exhibition features two of his landscape paintings. The Duck Pond, 1874, is a brilliant study of light and reflections on water, a typical Impressionist motif. Likely executed en plein air (out of doors), this picture was painted on Monet’s own property in Argenteuil, on the Seine outside Paris. Spring in Giverny, 1890, was painted in the countryside of Giverny, where Monet spent the last years of his life. He has captured the atmospheric conditions of light and air through his light brushstrokes and pastel colors.
Berthe Morisot... The first woman to join the circle of the French impressionist painters, she exhibited in all but one of their shows. Morisot was Manet’s sister-in-law as well as the great-granddaughter of the 18th century painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard. The Bath (Girl Arranging Her Hair), 1885–86, is painted in an array of colorful and slashing brushstrokes, and depicts Isabelle Lampert, a 17-year-old girl whom Morisot painted on several occasions. The painting was owned at one time by Claude Monet.
Camille Pissarro... A good friend of Pissarro, Ludovic Piette was a wealthy landowner and painter who exhibited with the Impressionists. Piette’s family farm, Montfoucault, was a place of retreat for Pissarro and he painted it numerous times, including the snowy winter scene in Piette’s House at Montfoucault, 1874. The second painting by Pissarro in the exhibition, The River Oise Near Pontoise, 1873, is a light, airy scene that combines the idyllic French countryside with the urban modernization of a factory. One of the four scenes Pissarro painted of this factory, which stood across the Oise from where he lived, it is also the cheeriest of the views. The influence of Pissarro’s teacher, the landscape painter Camille Corot, can be seen in the painterly surface and the use of pastel, muted colors.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir... There are five paintings by Renoir in the exhibition, including the vivid Self-Portrait, 1875, which depicts the artist at about the age of 34. Although Renoir himself referred to the picture as a "paltry sketch," the animated brushwork, bright contrasts, and the sitter's penetrating gaze make it one of his most expressive paintings. Girl Crocheting, 1875, is one of numerous paintings he made of beautiful women, for which he is best known. It shows Nini de Lopez, one of Renoir’s favorite models, in deep concentration at the task at hand, with seemingly little concern for the chemise that has slipped off her shoulder. Exhibited in the Seventh Impressionist Exhibition of 1882, At the Concert, depicts two elegantly dressed women in a box at the opera. A male figure, painted over by Renoir, is still partially visible at the upper right. The painting is distinguished by its balance between traditional portrait techniques and the methods developed by Impressionist artists to represent the effects of light. The actress Jeanne Samary, who posed for over 10 portraits by Renoir, may have been the model for A Girl with a Fan, 1879–80. Rather than being a clearly individualized portrait, however, the painting presents an idealized image of feminine beauty, conveyed by the sitter’s coquettish pose and alluring glance. Finally, Onions is a remarkable still life Renoir painted in Naples in 1881. From these mundane objects, Renoir created a dynamic composition.
THE COLLECTORS
Grandson of a founding partner of the Singer Sewing Machine Company, Robert Sterling Clark (1877-1956) began seriously acquiring art in 1912, when he was 35 years old. While he collected 19th century French Impressionist art most heavily, he also bought Renaissance Italian paintings and works by American artists such as Winslow Homer and John Singer Sargent. He also relied heavily on the opinion of his wife Francine (1876-1960), whom he married in 1919. He once described her as “an excellent judge, much better than I at times,” referring to her as his "touchstone in judging pictures." By the time of Sterling’s death in 1956, the Clarks had amassed over 400 works of art, many of which are considered masterpieces. Pierre-Auguste Renoir remained for them the quintessential Impressionist, and they acquired more than 35 of his paintings.
This exhibition was organized by the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts. Major support is provided by RBC Dain Rauscher, the Museum’s Friends of European Art, the Museum’s Connoisseurs Circle, and The Virginia G. Piper Exhibition Endowment. Additional support is provided by Aon of Arizona, Michael and Heather Greenbaum, and Paul and Merle Marcus. Promotional support is provided by The Arizona Republic, News Radio 620 KTAR, Barnes & Noble, KJZZ/KBAQ Public Radio Phoenix, Jewish News of Greater Phoenix, and Latino Perspectives Magazine.
Left: The Duck Pond, Claude Monet, 1874. Oil on canvas. © Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, 1955.529. Center: Self-Portrait, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1875. Oil on canvas. © Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Mass., 1955.584. Right:Moss Roses in a Vase, Edouard Manet, 1882. Oil on canvas. © Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Mass., 1955.552.