A special exhibition of European portrait painting, Eye to Eye: European Portraits 1450–1850 features works by master artists from the late fifteenth century through the early nineteenth century. On view Jan 23 – Mar 27,2011.
Representing the range of styles and themes in Old Master portraiture as practiced in the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Spain, England, and France, the twenty-nine paintings and one sculpture in the exhibition include remarkable works by Memling, Cranach, Parmigianino, Ribera, Rubens, Van Dyck, Greuze, and David, as well as other extraordinary works by lesser-known painters. This exhibition is the first opportunity for the public to see many of these works, which have been lent exclusively to the Clark from a private collection.
Eye to Eye is organized by Richard Rand, the Robert and Martha Berman Lipp Senior Curator and Curator of Paintings and Sculpture, and Kathleen Morris, the Sylvia and Leonard Marx Director of Collections and Exhibitions and Curator of Decorative Arts, both at the Clark. “For centuries, portraiture has captured the imagination of artists and viewers, not to say the sitters themselves,” Rand states. “But what makes a portrait successful? Is it an accurate likeness? An indication of the sitter’s character or social status? A fabulous mastery of the formal possibilities of art-making? Eye to Eye explores these questions through close examination of a fascinating group of masterworks, assembled before the public for the first time.”
Image: Portrait of a Young Woman Holding Grapes and Apples, 1528,
by Lucas Cranach, the Elder. Oil on panel transferred to canvas.
Private collection.
www.clarkart.edu