Museums: The Frick Collection

What do you get when you mix steel-making, union-busting, a healthy ego and a taste for fine European art?

The answer:  The Frick Collection.

The Frick Collection:

Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919) used some of his fortune to collect masterpieces of European artists--from Rembrandt to van Dyck to Turner.  (Frick's fortune, if translated into current dollars, would place him in the top 10 of the Forbes Billionaires List.  Of course, in current times, Mr. Frick would have to use some of his fortune to stay out of jail and avoid Congressional subpoenas.  The ethics of the Gilded Age are different from today's.)

Not only did Frick collect masterpieces, he housed them in a NYC mansion on Fifth Avenue so he and his family, his friends and guests and his rivals could admire them.  In fact, he intended for his collection and mansion to remain in place long after he had moved on.  Since his death, the artwork and mansion have been held in trust, and following his wife's death two decades later, a public museum was established in the mansion.  Known as the Frick Collection, the museum is a fine portfolio of mostly European masters, with a Stuart and some Whistlers thrown in for good measure.  

Recently, we visited the Frick Collection, located at Fifth Avenue and 70th Street, not too far from our building.  The mansion, completed in 1914, is as impressive as the artwork.  The original structure must have been a nice place to live.  The mansion was significantly expanded when it was converted into a museum.  Where a carriage way once ran, there are now an enclosed garden courtyard and large galleries for displaying owned and borrowed artworks.  

The Frick House, shortly after completion in 1914

The Frick Collection:  The Garden Court, where a carriage way once ran

Viewing art at the Frisk is a pleasure.  If MoMA and Met galleries are minimalist and austere, Frick galleries are congenial, if not a bit stuffy.  Plus, original furniture and decorative pieces help remind viewers that the museum was once a home, a luxurious and very large home.  The exterior and interior gardens add to the beauty of the museum.   For a virtual tour of the largest gallery, the former ballroom, click here.

Apart from photos in the enclosed garden, interior photos are prohibited.  Below is a mix of original and linked photos.

The Frick Collection:  George Washington, Gilbert Stuart (1795-96)

The Frick Collection:  Henry Clay Frick, John C. Johansen (1943) (a gift from Mr. Frick's daughter)

The Frick Collection, The Lake, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1861) (possibly an early step toward the Impressionist movement)

Currently, the Firck Collection is hosting an exhibition surveying Anthony van Dyck's portraiture, with paintings and drawings from the Frick's permanent collection and from museums around the globe.

The Frick Collection:  James Stanley, Lord Strange, Later Seventh Earl of Derby, with His Wife, Charlotte, and Their Daughter, Anthony van Dyck (1636)

Friend Barbara Peters and some random hottie departing the Frick Collection.  They are ready to live in the house.