Robert Sterling as a collector of Sargent - works of painter John Singer Sargent in Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute

Magazine Antiques, Oct, 1997 by Marc Simpson

7 Conversation with Ogden Phipps (Clark diaries, November 14, 1942). In 1924 Clark had gone to a retrospective of Sargent's work at the Grand Central Art Galleries in New York City, recording in his diaries on February 21, 1924: "Portraits with two exceptions not much, Mrs. Iselin & Mrs. Inches [now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, respectively]. Absolutely none which compared with my Carolus Durand."

8 Clark diaries, April 28, 1942.

9 This is opposite to Clark's taste in Winslow Homer's work, where he appreciated a wide range of creations that spanned the artist's career. For a complete review, see Alexandra R. Murphy et al., Winslow Homer in the Clark Collection (Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1986).

10 "Americana has run riot. Truth is Americans have not enough taste to appreciate art!! No difference or but little between these indifferent artists & men like Winslow Homer & Sargent!! At least in the prices asked" (Clark diaries, April 28, 1942). Clark implied this same hierarchy in his diaries as early as February 2, 1925.

MARC SIMPSON is an assistant editor at the Bibliography of the History of Art/Getty Information Institute housed in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.