Enfilade

George Romney, Satan Surveying the Fallen Angels, ca. 1790, pen and black ink and brush and gray wash over graphite on laid paper, 36 × 53 cm
(Williamstown: The Clark, 2023)

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Now on view at The Clark:

50 Years and Forward: British Prints and Drawings Acquisitions
The Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA, 18 November 2023 — 11 February 2024

Curated by Anne Leonard

The emergence of British art as a significant collecting area at the Clark is a recent phenomenon. For museum founders Sterling and Francine Clark, works by artists from the British Isles did not constitute a major collecting focus. British art was largely eclipsed by the French Impressionist, American, and Old Master paintings that the Clarks so loved and that became central to the museum’s identity. A transformative gift from Sir Edwin and Lady Manton’s collection of British art, donated by the Manton Art Foundation in 2007, changed all that. British art soared dramatically in significance and visibility at the Clark, and a dedicated gallery allowed works from the Manton Collection (mostly paintings) to be on permanent display. Works on paper such as prints and drawings, however, are light-sensitive and can be on view only for short intervals, if they are to be preserved for posterity. Therefore, this exhibition is a rare opportunity to present, all at once, the broad scope of our British collection with prints and drawings of the highest quality.

50 Years and Forward: British Prints and Drawings Acquisitions offers a richly varied selection of works on paper acquired since the Manton Research Center opened in 1973. Highlights include lively figure drawings by Thomas Rowlandson; vibrant watercolor landscapes by J.M.W. Turner, Thomas Girtin, and H.W. Williams; heartfelt interpretations of nature by John Constable and Samuel Palmer; vivid portrait heads by Thomas Frye and Evelyn de Morgan; and an astonishing watercolor interior by Anna Alma-Tadema. This abundant display showcases how the Clark continues, in the wake of the Manton gift, to enrich the British works on paper collection—ensuring that it grows in strength and variety far into the future.

50 Years and Forward: British Prints and Drawings Acquisitions is organized by the Clark Art Institute and curated by Anne Leonard, Manton Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs.

Now on view at The Clark:

50 Years and Forward: Works on Paper Acquisitions
The Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA, 16 December 2023 — 10 March 2024

Curated by Anne Leonard

Ubaldo Gandolfi, Seated Male Nude, ca. 1770, red chalk on paper, 41 × 29 cm (Williamstown: The Clark, gift of David Jenness in honor of Arthur Jenness, Professor at Williams College, 1946–63, 2012.17.4).

When the Clark Art Institute opened in 1955, it had 500 drawings and 1,400 prints, totaling 1,900 works on paper. In the past fifty years, 4,000 works on paper have been added—more than double the museum’s founding gift—and acquisitions continue apace. While these numerical increases are important, they are only part of the story. What they fail to convey is the change in the collection’s character over time. With constant reappraisal over the decades, new dimensions have emerged, building upon Sterling and Francine Clark’s original vision.

50 Years and Forward: Works on Paper Acquisitions marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Manton Research Center—the home of the works on paper collection—with a selection of prints, drawings, and photographs acquired between 1973 and 2023. Featuring recent acquisitions and other works never shown here before, the exhibition starts from classic territories with which the Clark has long been closely identified—such as early modern drawings and nineteenth-century French art—and shows how those pockets of strength continued to grow in later decades. In a parallel development, the Institute initiated fresh collecting areas such as photography and Japanese prints. Such additions, while hewing to the same standards of quality and art-historical significance, have allowed the Clark to fill acknowledged gaps and raise its institutional profile.

In this anniversary exhibition, we explore and celebrate the developments of the past fifty years. Along with familiar works by Albrecht Dürer, Francisco de Goya, Édouard Manet, and Mary Cassatt, we highlight lesser-known areas of the collection, including early twentieth-century art, photographs by Berenice Abbott and Doris Ulmann, and important images of and by Black Americans. With each passing year and decade, the Clark reaffirms its commitment to the founders’ storied collecting mission, modifying and expanding it to meet the needs of a new era.

50 Years and Forward: Works on Paper Acquisitions is organized by the Clark Art Institute and curated by Anne Leonard, Manton Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs.

A checklist of all works is available here»