GALLERY TALK AT CLARK ART INSTITUTE EXPLORES WORKS BY DELACROIX, DENIS, AND GAINSBOROUGH

For Immediate Release
April 12, 2016

Williamstown, Massachusetts—Jay A. Clarke, Manton Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs at the Clark Art Institute, discusses three paintings by Eugène Delacroix, Maurice Denis, and Thomas Gainsborough on Tuesday, April 26 at 3 pm. The lecture will be held in the permanent collection galleries in the Museum Building and is free with paid admission.

Featuring works currently on loan to the Clark, the talk includes Delacroix’s The Martyrdom of Saint Sulpicius, Denis’s The Pilgrims at Emmaus, and Gainsborough’s Wooded Rocky Landscape with Mounted Peasant, Drover and Cattle, and Distant Building.

Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix (French, 1798–1863) is generally considered the leader of the French Romantic school. As a painter and muralist, his use of expressive brushstrokes and his study of the optical effects of color shaped the work of the Impressionists, while his passion for the exotic inspired the artists of the Symbolist movement. Painter and writer Maurice Denis (French, 1870–1943) was a member of the Symbolist and Les Nabis movements. His theories contributed to the foundations of cubism, fauvism, and abstract art. He was among the first artists to insist on the flatness of the picture plane—one of the starting points for modernism. Thomas Gainsborough (English, 1727–1788) was a portrait and landscape painter, draughtsman, and printmaker. He painted quickly, and his works are characterized by a light palette and easy strokes. He is credited (with Richard Wilson) as the originator of the eighteenth-century British landscape school.

ABOUT THE CLARK

The Clark Art Institute, located in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, is one of a small number of institutions globally that is both an art museum and a center for research, critical discussion, and higher education in the visual arts. Opened in 1955, the Clark houses exceptional European and American paintings and sculpture, extensive collections of master prints and drawings, English silver, and early photography. Acting as convener through its Research and Academic Program, the Clark gathers an international community of scholars to participate in a lively program of conferences, colloquia, and workshops on topics of vital importance to the visual arts. The Clark library, consisting of more than 240,000 volumes, is one of the nation’s premier art history libraries. The Clark also houses and co-sponsors the Williams College Graduate Program in the History of Art.

The Clark is located at 225 South Street in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Galleries are open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm. Admission is $20; free year-round for Clark members, children 18 and younger, and students with valid ID. For more information, visit clarkart.edu or call 413 458 2303.

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