Ruby Tuesday

This week's Ruby Tuesday features several photos of paintings I saw on a recent visit to the Clark Art Institute. For this Ruby Tuesday post they were, of course, chosen for their use of red.

I've been posting to Ruby Tuesday from my photo blog The Pagan's Eye but because this post has an art theme, I thought I'd place it here instead. I hope you enjoy it. And come by "the eye" sometime. Once in a while I get lucky and post a half-way decent picture. ;-) You can always just say hi if you don't have time to leave a comment.

An hour west of us in The Berkshires, this smaller museum has a lot to offer: samples of American painters such as Remington and Homer and a pretty good sized collection art by Renoir, Degas, Sisley, Cassatt and Manet, among others. Add to that furniture, glass, silver and sculptures and you have a very eclectic mix of works amassed by the William and Francine Clark, the art collectors who established the museum in Williamstown, Massachusetts.
Here is a bit about them taken from the website:

In 1910, after a distinguished career in the United States Army, Sterling Clark settled in Paris and began collecting works of art, an interest he inherited from his parents. When he married Francine Clary in 1919, she joined him in what quickly became a shared passion. Together they created a remarkable collection of paintings, silver, sculpture, porcelain, drawings, and prints with complete reliance on their own judgments and tastes. In 1950 the Clarks founded the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute as a permanent home for their collection, and the museum first opened to the public in 1955. Since its conception, the Institute has had a dual mission as both a museum and a center for research and higher education. It is in this spirit that the Clark has expanded over the last five decades to become the influential institution it is today.

The museaum allowed photography without flash, so I was allowed to go shutter-happy. I was pounced upon by a guard only once when I accidentally let the flash go off. I demonstrated the requisite profuse apologies but he still kept a strict eye on me after that.

The light there is quite dim, so many of these have been balanced and enhanced. I also cropped most of them to some extent.

They are much better in person, firstly. Secondly, they may be better images of these on the net but having taken my own pictures helps me to recall better what my appreciation was in person. If that makes any sense.

Coming up on Friday, is a set for The Friday Evening Nudes, of photos I took at the Clarke. I hope you'll join me then.

Love and peace,
Pagan

Renoir, above and below

Sleeping Girl with Cat

A Young Woman Reading Lucio Rossi 1875
The Guitar Player Boldini

Offering the Pinale to the Bullfighter Mary Cassatt 1873
Musical Group
Francois Joseph Navez
1821

Apples and Grapes in a Basket
Sisley
1876



Thanks to Mary for hosting Ruby Tuesday. That gal is red-hot! ;-)