Nestled in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute is home to an extraordinary collection of European and American paintings. The collection is particularly rich in nineteenth-century French paintings. During that period, Paris was the center of the European art world, and the extraordinary variety of styles and subjects reflects an exciting and sometimes turbulent atmosphere of social, political, economic, and technological change. In this selection of thirty images from the extensive holdings of the Clark, you will find examples of the traditional grand portraiture of Jacques-Louis David; the romantic bravura of Theodore Gericault; idealized descriptions of country living by Barbizon artists Jean-Francois Millet and Camille Corot; the social satire of Honore Daumier; brilliant and deceptively casual “snapshots” of everyday subjects by Edgar Degas; a voyeuristic look at an “exotic” culture by Jean-Leon Gerome; the cool academic representation of the ideal human form exemplified by William Bouguereau; experiments in new subjects and painting techniques developed by Impressionists such as Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, and Camille Pissarro; the radical approach to color and pattern of post-Impressionist Paul Gauguin; and more. These different artistic visions demonstrate the dramatic breadth of style and subject produced by nineteenth-century French artists. Pomegranate’s books of postcards contain up to thirty top-quality reproductions bound together in a handy, artful collection. Easy to remove and produced on heavy card stock, these stunning postcards are a delight to the sender and receiver. Postcards are oversized and may require additional postage.

100 Years of French Painting

Arts & Photography

Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute

History & Criticism

Pomegranate

Uncanny Spectacle: The Public Career of the Young John Singer Sargent

By the time John Singer Sargent turned thirty, years old in 1886, he already commanded an international reputation in the art world, creating a stream of works for exhibition that people eagerly awaited and discussed at length. Henry, James noted that Sargent's talent offered "the slightly 'uncanny' spectacle" of an artist on the threshold of his career who in fact had nothing more to learn. This book explores how the young American painter in just over a decade jumped from apprenticeship to wide acclaim, how he presented himself and his works, and how he sought to shape public perception of his talent. The book includes illustrations of every painting Sargent exhibited in Paris, London, and New York through 1887.
Drawing on the correspondence of the artist, his friends, and his family, as well as an extensive review of contemporary critical responses, the text examines these works of Sargent's early maturity -- some unseen in this century and others among his best-known works, including Smoke of Ambergris and Madame X. The authors contend that the canvases present a fresh view of Sargent's aspirations and ambitions, representing a metaphoric self-portrait of the artist as a young man. The early paintings, their relationship to one another, and their reception also shed light on the complex, cosmopolitan art world in which Sargent lived.
Uncanny Spectacle accompanies an exhibition of John Singer Sargent's early paintings that will open in June 1997 at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

Weinberg, H. Barbara

Sargent, John Singer

Simpson, Marc

Ormond, Richard

Individual Artists

Clark Art Inst

A companion to an exhibition of 71 outstanding photographs acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum between 1853 and 1900, encompassing early documentary photographs taken at and by the museum, photos taken around the world to document non-English design, and images of London buildings in danger of being lost to urban expansion. The work of two art photographers of the time, Julia Margaret Cameron and Gustave Le Gray, is highlighted. Essays on collecting photography at the museum and the entry of photographs into public museums in the 19th century provide a context for high-quality, sepia-toned images. Includes a checklist of the exhibition. No index. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

The Museum & the Photograph: Collecting Photography at the Victoria and Albert Museum 1853-1900

HAWORTH-BOOTH, Mark

McCauley, Anne

Victoria And Albert Museum

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

Univ of Washington Pr

#Catalog of an exhibition held at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Mass., Sept. 12, 1998-Jan. 3, 1999.#Includes bibliographical references.

Farewell to the Wet Nurse: Etienne Aubry and Images of Breast-Feeding in Eighteenth-Century France

Payne, Harry C.

Galitz, Kathryn Calley

Goltzius and the Third Dimension

Helen Foresman Spencer Museum of Art

Ganz, James A.

Elvehjem Museum of Art

GODDARD, Stephen H.

Graphic Design

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) was the only Impressionist artist to paint Orientalist themes, yet little has been written about the two journeys he took to the French North African colony of Algeria in 1881 and 1882. There he created more than two dozen stunning works, depicting exotic scenes of ancient stone mosques, milling crowds at a festival in the Casbah, and spectacular palm fronds in the botanical garden. This text, published to accompany a travelling exhibition organized by the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, assembles for all of Renoir's Algerian paintings as a coherent body of work. The volume situates Renoir's early studio Orientalism within the great tradition of French Orientalist painting. The landscapes and figure paintings Renoir completed in Algiers, several of which are previously unpublished, are discussed in the context of the topography of the city and of the ethnography of its people. Period photographs, engravings, maps and postcards, together with an essay exploring the Algeria beyond Renoir's canvases, provide historical and cultural background on the country and on the French presence there.

Renoir and Algeria

Benjamin, Roger

Prochaska, David

The 13 essays of this volume were first presented as papers at an eponymous conference held in May 2002 at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass. Of interest primarily to art historians or graduate students, the papers consider subjects that delve into the field's origins and present-day prejudices. Art history practice is considered in the United States, Holland, France, Germany, and England, with other essays on Vasari and the difference in approaches of European and American scholars and institutions. Distributed by Yale U. Press (their ISBN: 0-300-09791-3). Annotation (c) Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

The Art Historian: National Traditions and Institutional Practices (Clark Studies in the Visual Arts)

Zimmermann, Michael F.

Clark Conference (2002 Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute)

This lovely book provides the first comprehensive examination of Eastman Johnson’s vivid paintings of a quintessential New England themethe making of maple sugar. This series of pictures, executed during the 1860s, is perhaps the most ambitious project in the artist’s career.Brian T. Allen discusses the ways in which Johnson’s maple sugar paintings reflect a New England on the edge of vast changes, both in the technology of farming and in the social structures of small communities. He notes how Johnson conveys the tense, shifting relationship that existed between industrial innovation and New England’s distinctive brand of community spirit, evident through maple sugar’s close association with free labor, as opposed to cane sugar’s connection with slavery.Presented here in full color, Johnson’s maple sugar paintings are both a celebration of New England and a commentary on a bygone era.

Sugaring Off: The Maple Sugar Paintings of Eastman Johnson

Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery

Allen, Brian T.

Johnson, Eastman

Religious

The Blue Bower: Rossetti in the 1860s

Rossetti, Dante Gabriel

Spencer-Longhurst, Paul

Barber Institute of Fine Arts

Scala Books

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Books by Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute