The Clark Brothers Collect: Impressionist and Early Modern Paintings

Brothers Sterling and Stephen Clark—heirs to the Singer sewing machine fortune—were among the twentieth centurys most influential art collectors. This volume examines their magnificent collections, their personal lives and public profiles, and their significant roles in the history of American museums.

While the brothers shared a love for great art, they collected in different ways. Sterling was a private collector; his French Impressionist masterpieces, including thirty-eight Renoirs, and works by such American artists as Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, Frederic Remington, and Mary Cassatt now form the distinguished collection of the Clark. Stephen, a businessman and museum trustee, acquired modern works by such masters as Georges Seurat, Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Vincent van Gogh, often with specific museum collections in mind—including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Yale University Art Gallery.

Handsomely produced, this book features over two hundred illustrations of the works from Sterlings and Stephens collections. It also includes essays by distinguished scholars, an illustrated chronology, and a previously unpublished checklist of works purchased by Stephen Clark.

Michael Conforti is director and James A. Ganz is curator of prints, drawings, and photographs at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; Neil Harris is an independent historian; and Gilbert T. Vincent is former director of the New York State Historical Association, Cooperstown.