Clark, Robert Sterling

Clark, Robert Sterling (1877–1956) born in New York City, and Francine Clary Clark (1876–1960) born in France; art collectors. An heir of the Singer sewing machine fortune, he was the grandson of Edward Clark, the business partner of Isaac Singer. Robert graduated from Yale (1899), served in the army until 1905, and led a scientific expedition to China (1908–09). He settled in Paris as an art collector (1911), and married Francine (1919). Little is known of Francine's early life. The Clarks moved to New York City (1920s), then settled in Williamstown, Mass. (1949), where they continued to own racehorses and add to their collection of Old Master and 19th-century American paintings, and more especially works by Degas and Renoir, among other French Impressionists. In 1955 the Clarks established the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown and both are buried beneath the front steps of the original marble building.