Related Events
OPENING LECTURE: PASTORAL ON PAPER
March 16, 2 pm
Manton Research Center auditorium
William Satloff, exhibition curator and student in the Williams College/ Clark Graduate Program in the History of Art, introduces the concept of the pastoral landscape. Surveying the rich array of books, drawings, paintings, and prints presented in the exhibition, Satloff explores how leading artists of the Baroque and Rococo periods envisioned the idyllic lives of shepherds.
Free. Accessible seats available.
A HISTORY OF ARCADIA IN ART AND LITERATURE
April 12, 11 am
Manton Research Center auditorium
In this lecture, Paul Holberton, author of the acclaimed two-volume book A History of Arcadia in Art and Literature (2021), examines how idyllic landscapes and rustic scenes have been portrayed from antiquity through the Renaissance and into the eighteenth century. Presented in coordination with Pastoral on Paper, Holberton discusses the nuanced textual origins of the pastoral genre, from Virgil's adaptations of Theocritus to the influence of medieval pastourelles, while responding to leading early modern literary and artistic luminaries such as Torquato Tasso, Claude Lorrain, and Thomas Gainsborough.
Free. Accessible seats available.
SCHOOL VACATION WEEK
April 22–24, All Day
Spring into school vacation week with activities celebrating the Pastoral on Paper exhibition. Check out the drawings and prints featuring cows, shepherds, and landscapes, then turn your attention outdoors to the Clark's own pastoral setting. On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, try your hand at landscape drawing at several stations around the museum, each with a different drawing medium, or go en plein air (outdoors) with a drawing pad and mini colored pencils. On Thursday in the Museum Pavilion, drop in between 11 am–2 pm to sculpt your own miniature cow to take home or add to our collaborative cow-scape. At 2 pm, on all three days, join us outside with Williamstown Rural Lands for more nature-related hikes and activities that connect us with the land, the museum, and the exhibition.
Free. Remember, admission is always free for students of all ages (with a valid student ID) and anyone age 21 and under! Drawing pads and colored pencils are always available at the Clark Center admissions desk. Visit clarkart.edu/events for more information about vacation week programs.
Family programs are generously supported by Allen & Company
PASTORAL ON PAPER FILM SERIES
April 24, May 15 & May 22, 6 pm
Manton Research Center auditorium
The Pastoral on Paper Film Series celebrates the paradox of the idyllic, with films that inevitably introduce some kind of conflict into peaceful landscapes in the rural United States, France, and Ireland.
Days of Heaven (1978)
In 1916, Bill (Richard Gere) goes west to the Texas plains with his girlfriend Abby (Brooke Adams) and younger sister (Linda Manz). Posing as siblings, the trio find work with a wealthy, dying farmer. To escape their life of toil, Bill convinces Abby to marry their employer, and the ensuing love triangle binds the three together as they circle the landscape. The lonely beauty of Terrence Malick's film pays homage to Edward Hopper and Andrew Wyeth. (Run time: 1 hour, 34 minutes)
The Quiet Man (1952)
Both an exemplary and a unique example of director John Ford's use of landscape, The Quiet Man longs for an unregainable past and country. Set in the 1920s, the film stars Ford's muse John Wayne as Sean Thornton, a recently retired boxer who has traveled from America to his Irish birthplace to lay claim to his family farm. Winton Hoch's Oscar–winning technicolor cinematography is epic and yet intimate. (Run time: 2 hours, 9 minutes)
Jean de Florette (1988)
Gérard Depardieu gives one of his greatest performances as a city slicker, who is determined to make a success of the farm he has inherited—unaware that his new neighbor, played by Yves Montand, and his nephew have launched a ruthless scheme to take control of the land for themselves. The film is rooted in the French visual tradition, closely evoking the social and visual universe of Jean Jacques de Boissieu's 1772 etching The Entrance to a Forest with a Cottage on the Right, included in the Pastoral on Paper exhibition. (Run time: 2 hours)
Free. Accessible seats available.