Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919)

It has been the custom of European art critics and historians to portray great American collectors as having had more money than taste, J.Paul Getty included. Whilst it is true that many collectors from the United States (such as Isabella Stewart Gardner)  relied heavily on the advice of  various European connoisseurs and sometimes ruthless agents to form their collections and made crashing errors along the way, the same cannot be said for Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919).
There was nothing in this man’s humble origins that indicated he would one day form one of the world’s greatest, almost faultless art collections. Born in Pennsylvania he was poorly educated but became a self-made millionaire by the age of thirty. An early passion for art which began with collecting prints in his teen years was nurtured by a trip to Europe with Andrew Mellon in 1879. His first acquisition of an old master was a Still Life with Fruit by van Os. Frick soon learned the system of ‘trading up’ as he sold off many paintings from Barbizon school and American artists that he had acquired in preference for carefully selected old masters.
 

Frick's first major purchase in the rarefied field of old masters was Rembrandt’s Portrait of a Young Man bought in 1899 which still hangs in his New York mansion. Honouring Frick’s stipulation in his will that the paintings he hung there should never leave the premises, Rembrandt’s self-portrait here shown, which he purchased in 1906 did not join the current blockbuster exhibition ‘Rembrandt By Himself’ (London, NG). Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn 1606-1669 Self-Portrait, dated 1658, Oil on canvas (133.7cm x 103.8cm)

He went on to use his enormous wealth for the purchase of masterpieces including Titian’s portrait of Pietro Aretino the first Italian Renaissance painting he added to his collection, Hans Holbein’s famous portrait of Sir Thomas More, Giovanni Bellini’s pristine St. Francis in the Wilderness and the portrait of King Philip IV at Fraga by Velazquez.  He was active as a collector right up until his death purchasing in his final year, Vermeer’s Mistress and Maid. Whilst it is true that Frick  utilized the services of dealers such as the Duveen brothers, it is not true that his collection was formed by their judgement. In fact, he really only dealt with the Duveen brothers towards the end of his life when they held the monopoly over the sale of J. Pierpont Morgan’s collection.
Frick’s collecting acumen did not stop with old masters, he was equally discerning in his choice of renaissance bronzes, Limoges enamels, porcelains, furniture, drawings, prints and the work of contemporary artists such as Whistler.

All of these priceless works of art and objets were brought together in Mr. Frick’s mansion on Fifth Avenue and 70th Street which he had begun building in 1912 with the intention of creating a perfect setting for his collection, the whole to be left as his legacy to the nation. However it was not a sterile museum he constructed, but a home he lived in and the intimate scale and atmosphere of the place still impresses itself upon modern-day visitors.
 

It is reported that Frick allowed his grandchildren to play with the renaissance bronzes which the late John Pope-Hennessy called “one of the finest collections of small bronzes in the world.” Workshop of Giovanni Bologna, (1529-1608) NESSUS AND DEIANIRA, Bronze, height 88.3cm, Acquired in 1915, based on the original bronze group made by Gianbologna between 1575 and 1577 for the Salviati family of Florence.

Frick’s impeccable taste set the standard for his trustees and heirs who have added to the collection. A third of what you see on display today has actually been purchased since his death. These works of art can be loaned out for special exhibitions.

A visit to the Frick Collection is one of the most pleasurable experiences afforded to the art lover anywhere in the world today. There is no horrid café and no queues. Excellent audio guides allow you to roam around at random, keying in numbers and listening to witty descriptions by well known experts. It is a peaceful gallery where people speak in hushed whispers and you hear only the pleasant sound of water from the courtyard fountain and lunchtime recitals on the magnificent organ.
Where else can you lounge on a green velvet settee and contemplate Turner’s spellbinding seascapes?
And if all that art and beauty stretches the intellect too much you can step into the classical courtyard and refresh yourself gazing at the pond and papyrus reeds, like a creature inhabiting an Alma-Tadema painting.

ARTnewspaper.com recommends anyone visiting New York to see the Frick Collection. The mansion and its contents encapsulate a more refined manifestation of what has been coined 'The American Dream'. As the Director Charles Ryskamp concludes in the Frick's catalogue, "The Frick Collection, although small, has played a very significant role in the United States. The types of paintings collected by Mr. Frick deeply affected the taste of Americans in the decades after his death...it was, and continues to be, the model, the touchstone, for many other collectors and institutions - whether or not they achieve the standards of collecting or the atomspehre of The Frick Collection as we know it today."

The Frick Collection features masterpieces of Western art from the early Renaissance through
     the late nineteenth century.  Important works by Bellini, El Greco, Rembrandt, Titian, Turner,
     Vermeer, Whistler, and many others are housed in one of the great mansions remaining from
     the Gilded Age.  These paintings are complemented by one of the world’s finest collections of
     Renaissance bronzes and by French sculpture of the eighteenth century, in addition to
     outstanding furniture and decorative art works from the ateliers of Riesener, Lacroix, Boulle,
     Carlin, Gouthière, and Sèvres.  Each year more than 250,000 visitors from New York, across
     America, and around the world come to the Collection at 1 East 70th Street, once the residence
     of Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919).  Designed by Thomas Hastings of Carrère and Hastings and
     constructed in 1913-1914, the building was changed after Mrs. Frick’s death in 1931, with
     alterations and additions made by the architect John Russell Pope.  In 1935 the Collection
     opened to the public.  A new Reception Hall, built in 1977, was designed by John Barrington
     Bayley, Harry van Dyke, and G. Frederick Poehler, as well as two temporary exhibition
     galleries.  The Frick Collection also operates the Frick Art Reference Library at 10 East 71st
     Street, both a research library and a photoarchive.  The Library is one of the world’s great
     repositories for the documentation and study of Western art and has served the international
     art world for more than seventy-five years.

Basic Information:
General Information Phones: 
Collection (212) 288-0700
Website: www.frick.org
E-mail: info@frick.org
Where: The Collection is located at 1 East 70th Street, near Fifth Avenue. 
Hours: 10am to 6pm Tuesdays through Saturdays, and from 1pm to 6pm Sundays.
Closed Mondays, New Year's Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, December 24,
and December 25.  Limited hours (1:00 to 6:00pm) on Lincoln's Birthday,
Election Day, and Veterans Day. 
Museum Admission: $7, general public; $5, students & senior citizens.  See
updated "Tour Information."  Children under age 10 are not admitted to the
Collection.
Subway: #6 local (on Lexington Avenue) to 68th Street station
Bus: M1, M2, M3, and M4 southbound on Fifth Avenue to 72nd Street and
northbound on 
Madison Avenue to 70th Street
Tour Information: now included in the price of admission is an Acoustiguide
INFORM® Audio Tour of the permanent collection, provided by Acoustiguide.
The tour is offered in five languages: English, French, German, Japanese,
and Spanish.   (Italian later this winter)
Museum Shop: the shop closes at 5:45pm, and is open otherwise the same days
and hours as the Museum.
Group Visits: Please call (212) 288-0700 for details and to make
reservations.
Public Programs: A calendar of events is published regularly and is
available upon request.
 

see also : Watteau at the Frick

RLG