Copper King Collection Comes to Montana
Great works of art often have many homes as they traverse the centuries.
By Cary Shimek
In 1775 Paris, master artist Jean-Honoré Fragonard painted “The Happy Family,” a heartwarming scene focused on a mother, her children and a playful dog. A century later, the painting was purchased by one of America’s richest men, William A. Clark, the notorious “Copper King” whose unimaginable wealth was forged in early Montana.
For years “The Happy Family” hung inside Clark’s 121-room Fifth Avenue mansion — the most expensive home ever assembled in New York City. When the tycoon and former U.S. senator from Montana died in 1925, his nouveau riche home was scrapped — nobody could (or cared to) purchase and maintain it. His art treasures were donated by his family to the Corcoran Art Gallery in Washington, D.C. There “The Happy Family” was displayed for decades in the museum’s Clark Wing until 2014, when severe financial hardship closed the Corcoran and its art was dispersed.
Now “The Happy Family” has journeyed west to a new home in UM’s Montana Museum of Art and Culture, and it didn’t come alone. The French masterwork and eight other Clark treasures gifted to the University are part of “The William A. Clark Collection: A Homecoming” exhibit, which will be displayed in the Performing Arts and Radio/Television Center until the end of August.
Another amazing piece in the exhibition, a 15th-century painted relief sculpture called “Madonna with Child,” is attributed to the Italian master Donatello. The UM museum also received three paintings by Corot, two by Cazin and one by Dupré — all from France — and one by Thomas Gainsborough of England.
“These are world-class works of art — some of the most important paintings in the state and the entire Inland Northwest,” says H. Rafael Chacón, a professor of art history and criticism and the MMAC director. “The addition of these pieces changes our collection. It ratchets it up a notch.”
The public has taken note. Attendance at UM’s galleries has been unprecedented.
“This has become something of a pilgrimage for many people,” says Jeremy Canwell, MMAC’s curator of art and exhibitions coordinator. “And it’s not just for art lovers — it’s historians and people interested in history and culture. I’m able to use that collection to give a brief intellectual and cultural history of Europe up to the turn of the 20th century. It’s something we can teach with, and a lot of our students can use these works for a master’s thesis.”
Dani Turner, an undergraduate fine arts student who graduated this spring, worked at the museum and helped unpack the Clark pieces when they first arrived.
“It felt like the Donatello weighed 200 pounds,” Turner says. “We had to be so careful with something so precious.”
Did the eastern Montana student from rural Wolf Point ever think she would get to work with a Donatello when she attended college?
“No,” she laughed. “It’s been pretty amazing.”
Chacón says no one deserves more credit for the Clark treasures coming to Montana than Missoula resident Nancy Matthews, who serves on the MMAC Advancement Council. Matthews became well acquainted with the Washington, D.C., arts community while serving as vice president for the arts at Meridian House International.
When I came to live in Montana, I realized the significance of Sen. Clark, one of the Montana Copper Kings,” Matthews says. “When I learned that the Corcoran, which had the entire collection from the Clark family, was closing its doors, I wanted to find out how some of the work could come to Montana where it seemed to belong. The (MMAC) seemed the obvious place for it, and I went to work.”
Matthews knew many of the players charged with allocating the Corcoran pieces to museums and other collections.
“Those sent to Montana are the only ones that were allowed to go as a group outside of the Washington area under a rule strictly adhered to by the D.C. attorney general,” she says. “The only exceptions were individual pieces with some kind of history or connection.”
Montana’s historical ties to the Clark collection are strong. W.A. represents a classic American rags-to-riches story.
In 1863, he came to what would become Montana chasing gold. In Bannack, he realized he could make more money selling scarce supplies to miners, and an epic business career was launched. He eventually became a banker in Deer Lodge and acquired mining claims. Realizing he didn’t know enough about that industry, at age 33 he moved his family to New York to study at the Columbia College School of Mines. Then back in Butte in 1883, he worked copper claims at “The Richest Hill on Earth.”
The budding Copper King soon owned Butte’s finest home, the fortune he would use to buy priceless artworks swelled, and his business interests surged beyond Big Sky Country. In 1888, he purchased Arizona’s United Verde Mine, which became the world’s richest source of copper. He owned Mexican coffee plantations and Wyoming coal fields. He built “the Clark Road” railroad connecting Salt Lake City to Los Angeles. He helped found Las Vegas and Fremont Street for his railroad workers.
Clark left a mixed legacy. In 1899, he was accused of bribing Montana legislators to elect him to the U.S. Senate. This helped lead to the 17th Amendment, which requires U.S. senators to be elected by popular election instead of state legislatures. Literary legend Mark Twain wrote of Clark: “He is as rotten a human being as can be found anywhere under the flag.”
Clark wasn’t much of a philanthropist in Montana, though he did establish the Columbia Gardens Amusement Park in Butte, which persisted until a 1973 fire. Instead, his vast wealth fed his business empire and flowed to the coasts, purchasing lavish mansions and casting a wide net of art purchases across Europe.
“He became a self-styled man of culture and letters to impress the New York elites,” Canwell says, “but they mainly wanted nothing to do with someone who they considered low class — who dug his riches out of the dirt.
After his death, Clark’s wealth was divided among the children of two marriages, including youngest daughter Huguette Clark, who passed away in 2011 at age 104. She lived an eccentric, reclusive life that was strangely impacted by her incredible inheritance. She never visited some of her grand properties, which became the subject of the best-selling book “Empty Mansions” by Pulitzer-winning journalist Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell Jr.
In March, Dedman visited UM and gave a lecture to an overflow crowd about the mysterious life of Huguette, as well as W.A.’s wealth and art. So the new Clark pieces, valued in the millions, are already enhancing the academic climate of UM. Chacón also envisions an international academic conference of Donatello scholars coming to campus to determine whether the UM art definitely was produced by the Renaissance master.
With great art comes great responsibility. The entire Clark collection has conservation needs, and the Dupré painting, “Animals Crossing a Bridge,” recently joined the exhibit after six months of restoration work in Seattle. The conservation of one painting can cost $10,000, and framing can run into the thousands. Chacón says they are fundraising to help preserve the Clark treasures.
“What’s amazing about this story, is that when the Clark Collection became available, we were able to look at a list and make a selection,” he says. “We weren’t last on the list, so we wound up with something wonderful.”
Great art often has many homes. For now, the Copper King pieces hang proudly in a small UM gallery, but at the end of August they go into storage so other art can rotate in. The University’s MMAC is home to more than 10,000 works of art. The dream persists for a UM museum building that could display more of the collection.
“The Clark works need a home where they can be permanently on view,” Canwell says. “They are just too rich to be in a vault.” •
UPDATE: Payne Family Donates $5M for Montana Museum of Art and Culture
