| Frick Collection | |
|---|---|
| Established | 1913 |
| Location | 1 East 70th Street New York, NY 10021 (United States) |
| Type | Art [1] |
| Director | Anne L. Poulet [2] |
| Website | The Frick Collection |
The Frick Collection is an art museum located in Manhattan, New York City, United States.
It is housed in the former Henry Clay Frick House, which was designed by Thomas Hastings and constructed in 1913-1914. John Russell Pope altered and enlarged the building in the early 1930s to adapt it to use as a public institution. It opened to the public on December 16, 1935.
The Frick was built at a time when almost every building on Fifth Avenue above 59th Street was a private mansion, with a few private clubs and a hotel. Amidst this wealth, Henry Clay Frick's home was among the most opulent, with private gardens both on the avenue front and in an interior courtyard. The house is worth visiting independent of the collection.
The Frick is one of the preeminent small art museums in the United States, with a very high-quality collection of old master paintings and fine furniture housed in 6 galleries within the formerly occupied residential mansion. The paintings in many galleries are still arranged according to Frick's design, although additional works have been bought by the Frick Collection over the years in a manner deemed to correspond with the aesthetic of the collection.
The collection features some of the best-known paintings by major European artists, as well as numerous works of sculpture and porcelain. It also has 18th century French furniture, Limoges enamel, and Oriental rugs.[1] After Frick's death, his daughter, Helen Clay Frick, expanded the collection, with a third of its art works acquired since 1919. The Frick also oversees the nearby Frick Art Reference Library.
Included in the collection are Jean-Honoré Fragonard's masterpiece, The Progress of Love, three paintings by Johannes Vermeer including Mistress and Maid, and Piero della Francesca's St. John the Evangelist. Other featured artists include:
Bailey, Colin B. (2006). Building the Frick Collection: An Introduction to the House and its Collections. New York: Frick Collection, in association with Scala Publishing. p. 128. ISBN 1857593812.