Robert Sterling Clark Robert Sterling Clark ( June 25 , 1877 - December 29 , 1956 ) , heir to the Singer Sewing Machine fortune , was an American art collector , horse breeder , and philanthropist . Biography . Known by his middle name , Sterling Clark served in the military in the Philippines and during the Boxer rebellion , where he served under General Smedley Butler , who implicated him in the Business Plot , an alleged political conspiracy in 1933 to overthrow United States President Franklin D . Roosevelt . Following his graduation from Yale University , Clark visited Paris , France and over the years would return there frequently , eventually maintaining a residence there . In Paris , he met actress Francine Clary whom he married in 1919 . He owned several residences : New York City , Cooperstown , New York , " Sunridge Farm " in Upperville , Virginia , and Paris , France . Art collecting . Sterling Clark purchased his first Impressionist painting , Pierre - Auguste Renoir ' s Girl Crocheting , in 1916 . He and his wife Francine ( 1876 – 1960 ) continued to collect art rapidly and towards the end of their lives established their collection as a museum near the campus of Williams College in Williamstown Mass . They did this after originally making plans with his brothers Stephen Carlton Clark and F . Ambrose Clark to combine their collections in a single art museum in Cooperstown . After a falling out among the brothers , Sterling not only cancelled such plans but also withdrew his share of the family fortune from the collective trust . He established his own foundation and sold off or donated all of his property holdings in Cooperstown . He donated the Ernest Flagg designed neoclassic YMCA building commissioned by his mother , Elizabeth Scriven Clark , in 1898 to the village in 1932 , and it now houses village offices , the library and the Cooperstown Art Association . Almost no communication between Stephen and Sterling occurred again . Over the next five decades he and his wife collected numerous paintings by Renoir , plus dozens of paintings , sculptures and pastels by other Impressionist artists . The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown , Massachusetts opened its doors to the public in 1955 . According to TIME magazine , " In building their $ 3 , 000 , 000 Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute , the Clarks ignored costs ( Local boosters boast that the marble for the new museum was the biggest single order in Vermont since the U . S . Supreme Court . ) but insisted on quality . " Works in the collection included over 30 Renoirs as well as Dutch , Spanish and American painters such as Winslow Homer , Goya , Frans Hals , and Degas . 1909 Expedition . He financed a 1909 Expedition which sought specimens from the Yellow River into Shaanxi and then to Gansu provinces of China . He recruited the explorer Arthur de Carle Sowerby as naturalist for the trip , later publishing a book with Sowerby about the expedition entitled " Through Shên - kan : the account of the Clark expedition in north China , 1908 - 9 " . He established the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation which operates today from offices at 135 East 64th St . , New York City . Horse Racing Interests . Clark raced horses in the United States and in Europe . In the United States , his filly , Current , was voted the 1928 retrospective American Champion Two - Year - Old Filly , whilst in England Galatea II won the 1000 Guineas and Oaks in 1939 . The most noted horse owned and bred by Mr . Clark was Never Say Die ( 1951 – 1975 ) , a Kentucky bred chestnut colt , though conceived in Ireland , before being shipped ' in utero ' to Jonabell Farm , Lexington , where Clark ' s breeding activities were centred . Raced in England , he won the 1954 Epsom Derby at odds of at 33 to 1 . He was ridden by 18 - year - old Lester Piggott , the youngest jockey to ever win the Derby . Never Say Die also won the Rosslyn Stakes ( ENG ) and St . Leger Stakes ( Gr . 1 ) . Upon retirement , Clark gifted the horse to the National Stud . Following his marriage , Clark ' s interest in horses waned considerably . Yet during his lifetime he was known as a successful horse owner rather than as the art collector he ' s known as today .