The Clark Art Institute debuts 'An Exquisite Eye,' showcasing 150 European masterpieces from the Aso O. Tavitian Collection, offering the public its first look at one of the century's most significant private art gifts.
WILLIAMSTOWN — Frozen in white marble, the visage of Little Lise is one of absolute beauty.
The sculpture conjures up an image of a young woman, her face flushed with a healthy glow. She is young, innocent, her hair pulled back with a bow. Her smooth skin is complemented by expertly sculpted curls, so voluminous that the viewer wants to reach out and touch them, to confirm the hair is, in fact, stone.
The work, by Jean-Antoine Houdon, one of the most sought-after portrait sculptors of the French Enlightenment, is just one of 150 works on display as part of "An Exquisite Eye: Introducing the Aso O. Tavitian Collection," the first public presentation of selections from a treasure trove of 331 works of European art bequeathed to the Clark Art Institute in October 2024 by the former trustee and philanthropist.
The exhibition offers the first opportunity to see the breadth of Tavitian's collecting eye — the qualities that drew him to works made across centuries, countries and artistic movements.
Tavitian, who died in 2020, served on The Clark's board of trustees from 2006 to 2012. He had homes in Stockbridge and New York City. Before his death, Tavitian decided to gift The Clark a significant portion of his collection, as well as over $45 million to build a wing, opening in 2028, to house the works and to endow a curatorial position and additional support staff positions. The works, donated through the Tavitian Foundation, were part of a larger collection that Tavitian housed between his two properties in New York City and West Stockbridge.
The gift of 331 works — 132 paintings, 130 sculptures, 39 drawings and 30 decorative objects — was selected by Clark curators.
"The Clark was afforded the incredible opportunity to select what we wanted from his collection, and so we spent well over a year, really strategically thinking about what would make sense here," said Esther Bell, director of The Clark Art Institute and co-curator of the exhibit.
On view through Feb. 21, 2027, the exhibition highlights a vibrant range of works from more than four centuries of artistry, including rare early Netherlandish paintings, Italian Renaissance sculpture, Baroque portraiture and 18th-century French works by Houdon, Jan van Eyck and Élisabeth Louise Vigée-Lebrun.
"This collection is marked by exceptional quality, breathtaking beauty, profound humanism and strokes of humor," Bell said during a June press walkthrough. "As a curator, this has been a dream project with a dream partner. Just the opportunity to spend time with artists like van Eyck, Bernini, Rubens, David, I could go on and on ... Just thinking of the stories these masterpieces can tell us is nothing short of extraordinary."
Unfolding over nine galleries, "An Exquisite Eye" is organized with broad chronological and historical frameworks, from about 1450 to 1850.
"The exhibition highlights not only the chronological breadth of the Tavitian collection, which is quite extraordinary, but also its geographical breadth. The exhibition represents artists from across the European continent: Italy, Spain, Germany, France, and the Netherlands," said Lara Yeager-Crasselt, inaugural Aso O. Tavitian curator of early modern European painting and sculpture. "And this is really noteworthy. The early modern period of European art was one of tremendous historical change — religious, political, social, cultural, and, of course, artistic. Artists played a pivotal role in responding to the world around them, adapting, shaping, defining, and sometimes challenging what they saw and experienced.
"The Tavitian collection, thus, is not only one of the most significant private collections that's been assembled in the 21st century, but it's also one of the most remarkable in its character in the ways in which it presents a dynamic and diverse view of the artistic production of early modern Europe and all of its complexity and creativity."
LOOKING CLOSER
The exhibition ranges from commanding portraits and sculpture to works small enough to fit comfortably in the palm of a hand. Those intimate objects reward patient looking, their finest details emerging only when viewers move in close.
Such is the case when viewing "Madonna at the Fountain" by Jan van Eyck and Workshop, an oil on panel from around 1440, that is the size of a paperback book. A rare copy of the Netherlandish artist's work, made in his workshop shortly before his death, the piece was most likely used for private religious devotions. In the intimate work, the Virgin Mary is clothed in blue; the infant Jesus, swaddled in her arms, embraces her neck. Angels flank her, holding aloft the brocaded cloth of red, blue and gold upon which she stands. Copies of religious art, such as this, were important to the Catholic Church. And while its early provenance is not known, it was, by the 16th century, in the possession of Margaret of Austria, ruler of the Netherlands.
Visitors will also want to lean in to view "Bust of an Angel," an oil painting on copper by Carlo Dolci, or Jean-Antoine Watteau's "The Proud Man." Both works are small — Dolci's angel is just under 6 inches high, Watteau's a mere 7 7/8 inches in diameter — but exquisitely detailed. Dolci's pale angel has downcast eyes and slightly parted lips; ringlets of red hair frame the delicate features — a serene feeling emanates from the work. The copper plate lends luminosity to the work, continuing after four centuries to bring a divine light to it.
In "The Proud Man," Watteau, synonymous with the French Rococo period, paints a man, in theatrical costume, who has stood up to his companions in the lower right. Perhaps he has disagreed with the well-dressed women seated on the ground. The man, we assume, from his pose — a smug smile, hand on hip — stands in righteousness, in confidence.
A LOVE OF FACES
The galleries are filled with breathtaking portraits — a dominant theme of the collection.
"Aso loved people, he loved faces," Yeager-Crasselt said.
A rare portrait by Peter Paul Rubens, "Portrait of a Young Man," c. 1613-15, features a handsome young man with high cheekbones, deep-set eyes and a pointed chin, dressed in a highly fashionable large white ruffled collar and black jacket with lace cuffs. There is a sense of intimacy between the sitter and the artist, an underlying vulnerability that makes the viewer want to know the story behind the work.
Alonso Sanchez Coello's "Portrait of Elizabeth de Valois," c. 1560, is more formal, as the sitter is the third wife of King Philip II of Spain. The French-born queen, then 15, had just arrived in Madrid when this portrait was painted. Coello captures the hesitancy of the young woman, perhaps still unsure of who to trust in the Habsburg Catholic court.
Louis-Léopold Boilly, working some 200 years after Coello, set his eyes on a different class of portrait sitters. Boilly's career thrived in an era of great political turmoil, from the fall of the French monarchy to the July Monarchy. His portrait sitters included members of aristocratic families, bankers, doctors and writers — members of the middle class. He sold the paintings for 120 francs ($360 today) and painted nearly 5,000 small-scale paintings, 33 of which were acquired by Tavitian.
The portraits, which were completed over the course of one or two two-hour sittings, captured a growing middle class, with access to money and a desire for works of art.
"This is a true representation of Parisian life at the turn of the 19th century. Mr. Tavitian, he kept these in his Stockbridge home," Bell said. "He always liked to say to his guests, 'Who would you like to sit next to at dinner?' Which, I think, is a fun parlor game because some of these people look like a great time and something really grouchy."
French sculptor Jean-Pierre Dantan, a later contemporary of Boilly, captured the "who's who" of Paris in the 1830s and 1840s in 30 caricature portrait sculptures. In one caricature, Dantan captures the Hungarian virtuoso Franz Liszt's dramatic performance style, long hair flowing down his back, arms outstretched across the piano. His sculptures, which capture cultural luminaries in a three-dimensional form, are as fun to look at as they are thought-provoking.
DISCERNING TASTE
Some of the most compelling stories aren't on the gallery walls at all, but in how the works came into Tavitian's collection.
Gaetano Gandolfi's "Diana and Callisto," c. 1770-79, was unknown to art scholars until it appeared at auction in 2010. The work, which was likely commissioned by the Russian prince Nicolay Borisovich Yusupov, a preeminent collector of 18th-century French and Italian painting, features the moment from Ovid's "Metamorphoses," where Diana has learned of Callisto's betrayal and is expelling the nymph from her court.
"Aso had an incredible knack for scooping things up right away, and that was, in part, because he trained himself as an art historian and followed the art market with great acuity," Bell said, speaking of Tavitian's purchase of the Gandolfi. "He had a network of friends of art professionals, of curators, of dealers. So, he was able to act quickly. He purchased things for himself that were at a museum-quality level. And this is one such example."
She said the painting disappeared when it left the prince's collection; the work remained in private collections until it appeared in 2010.
"When it was discovered, it was considered to be, in 2010, the greatest work by Gandolfi to appear on the market in modern history," Bell said. "And we're really happy to have it here at The Clark."
The Gandolfi was not an isolated example. Several works in the exhibition resurfaced after decades or even centuries outside public view before finding their way into Tavitian's collection.
Tavitian's gift to The Clark, she said, does more than just expand the collection in number.
"We're adding many artists that, as a curator, I've always coveted and wanted so badly for our collection, but are really hard to acquire by means for reasons of price or rarity. And Watteau is one such example," she said, referring to "The Proud Man." "This is another work that was lost to time until it was discovered, maybe 15 years ago, in an estate in France."
INCREDIBLE GENEROSITY
In addition to giving the public a first look at a part of the Tavitian collection, the exhibit takes a moment to pause to honor Tavitian and acknowledge his contributions.
"I had the great fortune of knowing him and he was a wonderful man," Bell said. "Not only was he a philanthropist and impressive and brilliant, but he was a really nice and humble person. He loved these things, so the fact that he left his collection to a museum to be enjoyed by others to come in and see them, I think, speaks to his incredible generosity. He was not only a patron of the arts, supporting the Frick Collection in New York and as a board member of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but I'd just like to say he was also a great champion of Armenian causes.
"He worked tirelessly to support not only Armenia as a place, but also students of Armenian descent who would come to the United States, and he sponsored students working at Tufts University. He knew each and every one of them that he was sponsoring. I've talked to some of these wonderful people. They say, 'You know, Aso followed up with my children and my grandchildren.' He was just really special in that way."
What: "An Exquisite Eye: Introducing the Aso O. Tavitian Collection"
Where: Clark Art Institute, 225 South St., Williamstown
On view: Through Feb. 21, 2027
Museum hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily in July and August
Admission: $22, adults; $20, 65 and over; $10, ages 18 to 25 and college students; free for 18 and under, Williams, MCLA and Bennington College students and Massachusetts Card to Culture.