International Tour of “The Age of Impressionism: Great French Paintings from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute” Opens at Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, December 22, 2013

Renowned collection of 73 French paintings, by Renoir, Degas, Monet, Manet and Toulouse-Lautrec, among others, from the Clark

Arrives in Houston for final presentation following venues in Europe, Asia and North America

On December 22, 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 May 4, 2014, which, as of March 17, is a change from the originally scheduled closing date of 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, with lead corporate funding provided by TMK IPSCO. 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.

"It’s a spectacular exhibition and we are thrilled to have the chance to present the show in Houston," said Gary Tinterow, Museum 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 – May 4, 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

Organization and Funding
The Age of Impressionism is organized by the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts. An indemnity has been granted by the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

Lead foundation underwriting is provided by The Hamill Foundation.

Lead Corporate Sponsor: TMK IPSCO

Additional generous funding is provided by:
Margaret Alkek Williams
Lisa and Downing Mears
GDF SUEZ
M. D. Anderson Foundation
Mr. Samuel F. Gorman
Birgitt Van Wijk

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 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.

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 spans the art of antiquity to the present.
 

Media Contacts
Mary Haus, Director of Marketing and Communications
Whitney Radley, Publicist
Vanessa Ramirez-Sparrow, Marketing and Communications Assistant
Vramirez-sparrow@mfah.org / 713.639.7554