The Clark: A Fine Museum
![Image](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLErU4IIVXEtHFnohMunsuddJcsVxnBQ1stgPKqyMwnsIxz767JBMRBvslYFXDd3RCfAZ7DNqF9ZgHu5ZWEK7RbPffN-yFi_FsbknZ3RNItktiXoYlWE0saoFB-5VB1Om4_mgkGWRdOnk/s1600/Sargent+-+Fumee+a%2527ambre+gris+-+1880.jpg)
Williamstown is in the northwest corner of Massachusetts. It is the home of Williams College, one of the so-called Little Ivies -- small, elite colleges in the Northeast that in some respects are comparable to the more famous Ivy League schools such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, Penn and so forth. Also in Williamstown is the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute , founded by Singer Sewing Machine heir Robert Sterling Clark . Its web page is here . A major part of the Institute is its museum which houses some outstanding paintings. It happened that for more than four years I lived and worked in the Albany, New York area, about 45 miles west of Williamstown. During that time, I'd drive through Williamstown maybe three or four time a year. And never visited The Clark. That's because I was focusing on demography and my interest in art was at a comparatively low ebb. Moreover, I was still somewhat in the brainwashed-by-modernist-ideology zone and besides, not a