A passion for Renoir

Now, for the first time, all thirty-three Renoir masterpieces currently in the collection of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, are brought together in one volume and illuminated by a compelling portrait of Clark, drawn from his never-before-published diary. One of the heirs to the Singer Sewing Machine Fortune (his grandfather had been Isaac Singer's business partner), Robert Sterling Clark also inherited from his Father a fervent interest in art collecting. Clark amassed his collection in the first half of the twentieth century, when Renoir was the most popular of the Impressionists, the one whose work brought premium prices on the art market and formed the cornerstone of many of the great American art collections of the time. Though he preferred to remain largely anonymous, Clark was one of a handful of important collectors who helped to advance Renoir's fame between the wars. Responding most strongly to the artist's early works, Clark also favored certain themes: his collection is particularly rich in works featuring children, in landscapes, and in portraits of women (especially an exquisite, world-renowned group of Bathers). Offering an unusual insight into the mind of a major art collector, the diaries portray all the aspects of Clark's engaging personality. Strong-willed, gritty, opinionated, emotional, irreverent, he always followed his credo, "Look, look and look again.". This volume affords us the rare opportunity of seeing all of Clark's important Renoir collection in dazzling, full-page colorplates that reveal all the color and artistry of the works. The essay by Steven Kern, Curator of Paintings at the Clark, and catalogue entries by him and other scholars Karyn Esielonis, Patricia R. Ivinski, and Rebecca Molholt reflect the most up-to-date scholarship and add significantly to the reexamination of Renoir that has begun in recent years.