Eye to Eye: European Portraits 1450–1850, Clark Art Institute, January 23 – March 27, 2011
Eye to Eye: European Portraits 1450–1850
Four Centuries of Portraits by Masters, Including Memling, Cranach, Parmigianino, Ribera, Rubens, Van Dyck and David
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, January 23 – March 27, 2011
Catalogue
Eye to Eye: European Portraits 1450–1850
by Richard Rand and Kathleen Morris
with an essay by David Ekserdjian
Published by the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, and distributed by Yale University Press, New Haven and London
ISBN 978-0-300-17564-6
The Clark usually manages to show at least one exhibition from an important private collection every year, and for us, the public, this is surely one of its healthiest policies. The Clark, after all, originated from a private collection, an idiosyncratic one, as the best private collections usually are, and the professionals who have been responsible for it since have made an effort remain true to the vision of the founders. Even after the Manton Bequest, a rather different, but compatible private collection, the atmosphere and ethos remain the same. To host distinguished private collections of a variety of different sorts is both an hommage to the initiative of the Clarks and an open window on different worlds, some of which, like the selection from the Steiner Collection of old master drawings, have found their way into the permanent collection. Others come and go, enriching the galleries for a few months, then leaving them open for other guests. I can think of few other institutions where such exhibitions seem so much like polite hospitality.

