Great French Paintings from the Clark

A beautifully produced volume devoted to a distinguished collection of European paintings, including an extraordinary group of French Impressionist works. This full-color catalogue features more than 70 of the most important nineteenth-century European paintings in the Clark Art Institute, including masterpieces by Monet, Pissarro, Sisley, Morisot, Manet, Degas, and Renoir. The book also includes earlier works by Corot and Millet, as well as academic paintings by artists such as Gerome and Bouguereau. Insightful essays by leading scholars of nineteenth-century European art are followed by lavish reproductions and illuminating catalogue entries about each work. James Ganz offers a fascinating introduction to Sterling Clark, an heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune, who along with his wife Francine founded the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute to house their important collection of European and American paintings, sculpture, drawings, and decorative arts. Richard Brettell discusses Clark in the context of other early-twentieth-century collectors such as Albert Barnes and Duncan Phillips. Published to accompany an international tour of the featured works, this handsome volume provides a superb overview of this extraordinary collection.

James A. Ganz is Curator of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and former Manton Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs at the Clark.

Richard R. Brettell is Professor of Aesthetic Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas. He is a former director of the Dallas Museum of Art and is the author of numerous books on nineteenth-century European painting.