Giverny, France – The Museum of Impressionism Giverny is proud to present “The Clark Collection at Giverny: From Manet to Renoir”. The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute of Williamstown, MA has organizing a major traveling exhibition of works from their permanent collection. Until October 31st, the exhibition will be on view at the Museum of Impressionism Giverny. The exhibition brings together nearly of the finest pieces from the Clark collection of European paintings from the nineteenth century, including works by Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, and an exceptional collection of paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. A section will be devoted to long-standing relationship with the Institute of French culture, starting with the history of its founders, the expatriate American Sterling Clark and his wife, French actress Francine Clary.
“It is a rare and wonderful opportunity for the Clark to present many of our great French paintings at the Musée des impressionnismes, and to consider these works in the seminal setting of Giverny is particularly compelling. We are so pleased to share some of the Clark’s best-known and most beloved works with a broader global audience,” said Director Michael Conforti. “This exhibition also allows us to honor the deep and important ties to France that have been vital to the Clark’s history and to the many cross-cultural programs that are central to our current activities.” The museum’s founder Sterling Clark moved to Paris in 1910, met and married his wife Francine Clary, an actress in the Comédie Française, and together they began to collect works by many of the most noted French painters of the era. The couple lived in an apartment in the sixteenth arrondissement in Paris for more than thirty years, and owned a horse farm in the countryside of Normandy.
Today, the Clark maintains close connections with museums and cultural organizations throughout the world. The Clark has long played a leadership role in the French Regional & American Museum Exchange (FRAME), a consortium of twenty-six museums in France and North America that promotes cultural diplomacy in the context of museum exchanges. FRAME fosters partnerships among its member museums to develop exhibitions, innovative educational and public programs, and professional exchanges among museum staff. The Clark has curated and hosted a number of exhibitions and events in cooperation with other FRAME museums and is active in a number of its programs.
Earlier this year, the Republic of France conferred a Chevalier in its Ordre des Arts et Lettres upon Richard Rand, the Clark’s Robert and Martha Berman Lipp Senior Curator of Paintings in recognition of Rand’s significant contributions to promoting French art and culture. The Clark’s international tour comes to the Musée des impressionnismes from the Palazzo Reale in Milan, where it garnered critical praise and considerable public attention. The exhibition, on view from March 2 through June 19, drew more than 170,000 visitors over the course of fifteen weeks.
Claude Monet moved to Giverny in 1883. Although he never encouraged other artists to follow him, the village soon attracted a circle of Americans who want to apply the principles at the heart of Impressionist landscapes. Giverny was therefore the natural home when Daniel J. Terra decided, in 1992, to create a Museum of American Art. During its 16 year liefespan, the museum created an unprecedented program of exhibitions, publications, seminars, conferences and residencies artists on the theme of American art. In 2009, a partnership between the Terra Foundation for American Art, the General Council of Eure, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie region, the Community of municipalities of the City of Vernon and Vernon, and the museum Orsay, enabled the creation of the Impressionism Museum of Giverny to replace the American Art Museum Giverny. This new museum seeks to study the history of Impressionism and its aftermath, and its more distant consequences in the second half of the twentieth century. The Terra Foundation keeps an active presence on the board of directors of the institution, and continues, in addition to loans, to organize exhibitions on American art, and by grants to participate in the development of this place. The Orsay Museum brings to the project and its scientific backing a policy of preferential loans. The museum is dedicated to the Impressionist movement, but also intends to explore the aesthetic power beyond the circle of painters usually recognized, both upstream (the precursors) and downstream (the common after World War II and into contemporary art). Visit the museum’s website at … http://www.mdig.fr