WILLIAMSTOWN, MA.- Continuing its commitment to global outreach and cultural exchange, the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute launched the first international tour of masterpieces from its collection of nineteenth-century European paintings with the exhibition Impressionisti: Capolavori della collezione Clark at the Palazzo Reale in Milan. Speakers at a press conference included Massimilliano Finazzer Flory, cultural councilor for the city of Milan; Domenico Piraina, Director of the Palazzo Reale; Iole Siena, President of Arthemisia Group, srl; Michael Conforti, Director of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; and Richard Rand, Robert and Martha Berman Lipp Senior Curator and Curator of Paintings and Sculpture at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.

Open to the public from March 2 through June 19, the exhibition includes many of the greatest works from the Clark’s extraordinary holdings of French Impressionism and European paintings. The exhibition features 73 paintings, including works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet, Berthe Morisot, and Camille Pissarro, as well as by Pierre Bonnard, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Paul Gauguin, Jean-François Millet, Alfred Sisley, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Jean-Léon Gérôme.

“We have looked to this opening day in Milan with great anticipation and are so pleased to share the Clark’s collection in a city that has such a rich heritage and a passionate appreciation for great art,” said Director Michael Conforti. “By sharing the best of the Clark’s famous nineteenth-century painting collection with these international institutions, we are issuing an invitation to the world to discover the treasures of the Clark’s collection.”

Following the exhibition at the Palazzo Reale, the works will travel to the Musée des impressionnismes in Giverny, France, where they will be on view from July 13 through October 31; followed by an exhibition at CaixaForum in Barcelona from November 18 through February 12, 2012. Venues in 2012 will include the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas from March 4 to June 17, 2012; the Royal Academy of Arts in London from July 7 to September 23, 2012; and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, in Canada from October 8, 2012 to January 20, 2013. In 2013, the exhibition will move on to venues in Japan and China.

The timing of the international tour coincides with the Clark’s preparations to launch the next phase of its campus expansion program and presents an ideal opportunity to share these works with a worldwide audience.