The Genius of Renoir; Paintings from the Clark

With a consuming enthusiasm for the paintings of Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), art collector Sterling Clark assembled one of the greatest private collections of Renoir's work during the first half of the 20th century. Today the masterpieces he so admired form a vital part of the Impressionist holdings of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.The Genius of Renoir: Paintings from the Clarkoffers a fascinating, fresh look at the thirty-two Renoir paintings in the Clark collection, featuring beautiful digital color reproductions created especially for this volume. The book brings to light new and often revelatory scholarship concerning the importance of each work, both within Renoir's oeuvre and within the Clark collection. Among the richly varied paintings, encompassing portraits, landscapes, and still lifes, are such key works asMarie-Therese Durand-Ruel Sewing,A Box at the Theater (At the Concert),Onions, andVenice, the Doge's Palace. John House, a leading authority on Renoir, offers an in-depth analysis of each of the works in the collection, and curator-author James A. Ganz draws on extensive archival research on Sterling Clark's pursuits as an art collector and museum founder to illuminate this visionary and often enigmatic man.

John House is Walter H. Annenberg Professor at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. James A. Ganz is curator of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.