Frick Collection facts for kids

Quick facts for kids

Established	1935
Location	1 East 70th Street Manhattan, New York City
Type	Art
Public transit access	Subway:  ​ at 68th Street–Hunter College Bus: M1, M2, M3, M4, M66, M72, M98, M101, M102, M103

The Frick Collection is an art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection features Old Master paintings and European fine and decorative arts, including works by Bellini, Fragonard, Goya, Rembrandt, Turner, Velázquez, Vermeer, and many others. The museum was founded by the industrialist Henry Clay Frick (1849–1919), and its collection has more than doubled in size since opening to the public in 1935. The Frick also houses the Frick Art Reference Library, a premier art history research center established in 1920 by Helen Clay Frick (1888–1984).

History

The Frick Collection became a public institution when Henry Clay Frick bequeathed his art collection, as well as his Upper East Side residence at 1 East 70th Street, to the public for the enjoyment of future generations.

Frick started his substantial collection as soon as he began amassing his fortune. A considerable portion of his art collection is located in his former residence “Clayton” in Pittsburgh, which is today a part of the Frick Art & Historical Center. Another part was given by his daughter and heiress Helen to the Frick Fine Arts Building, which is on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh.

The family did not permanently move from Pittsburgh to New York until 1905. Henry Frick initially leased the Vanderbilt house at 640 Fifth Avenue, to which he moved a substantial portion of his collection. He had his permanent residence built between 1912 and 1914 by Thomas Hastings of Carrère and Hastings. He stayed in the house until his death in 1919. He willed the house and all of its contents, including the works of art, furniture, and decorative objects, as a public museum. His widow Adelaide Howard Childs Frick, however, retained the right of residence and continued living in the mansion with her daughter Helen. After Adelaide Frick died in 1931, the conversion of the house into a public museum started.

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. Various additions to the architecture and landscape architecture of the museum site have been considered over the years including the placement of a prominent magnolia garden from the 1930s. As stated by the museum announcements: "As a result of a decision of the Board of Trustees in 1939, three magnolias were selected for the Fifth Avenue garden. The two trees on the lower tier are Saucer Magnolias (Magnolia soulangeana) and the species on the upper tier by the flagpole is a Star Magnolia (Magnolia stellata)."

Further expansions of the museum took place in 1977 and in 2011. In 2014, the museum announced further expansion plans, but came up against community opposition because it would result in the loss of a garden. The Frick ultimately dropped those plans and is said to be considering other options.

Collection

The Frick is one of the pre-eminent small art museums in the United States, with a high-quality collection of old master paintings and fine furniture housed in nineteen galleries of varying size within the former residence. Frick had intended the mansion to become a museum eventually, and a few of the paintings are still arranged according to Frick's design. Besides its permanent collection, the Frick has always organized small, focused temporary exhibitions.

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. After Frick's death, his daughter, Helen Clay Frick, and the Board of Trustees expanded the collection: nearly half of the collection's artworks have been acquired since 1919. Although the museum cannot lend the works of art that belonged to Frick, as stipulated in his will, The Frick Collection does lend artworks and objects acquired since his death.

Included in the collection are Jean-Honoré Fragonard's masterpiece The Progress of Love, three paintings by Johannes Vermeer including Mistress and Maid, two paintings by Jacob van Ruisdael including Quay at Amsterdam, and Piero della Francesca's St. John the Evangelist.

Temporary exhibits

The Frick is known to have extraordinary temporary exhibits. When the Mauritshuis was under reconstruction, key and rare works like Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring and Fabritius’s The Goldfinch toured the United States, and was exhibited at the Frick in 2013 as opposed to other venues available in New York City.

Management

Attendance

According to The Art Newspaper, the Frick Collection has a typical annual attendance of 275,000 to 300,000.

Governance

In 2011, Ian Wardropper succeeded Anne Poulet, who had run the Frick Collection as director since 2003. Poulet took the position after Samuel Sachs II stepped down after running the institution for six years. Poulet was the first female director of the Frick. During her time at the Frick Collection, Poulet increased the museum’s small board of trustees, adding 10 new members. She also introduced the Director’s Circle, a group of 44 members who each give a minimum of $25,000 a year to the Frick Collection, although many have made significantly larger contributions.

Funding

By 1997, the Frick Collection had an operating budget of $10 million and an endowment of $170 million. Despite its large endowment, the institution still needs money to preserve the building.

Education

In 2008, the Frick hired Rika Burnham as head of their education department. Burnham introduced several changes to the museum, including the introduction of monthly free entrance to the museum, called First Fridays. First Fridays include gallery talks and activities for visitors.

Artworks

Featured artists include:

Selected highlights

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  Titian, Portrait of a Man in a Red Cap, c. 1516

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  Hans Holbein the Younger, Portrait of Thomas More, 1527

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  Hans Holbein the Younger, Thomas Cromwell, 1532 or 1533

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  Agnolo di Cosimo, Portrait of Ludovico Cappon, 1551

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  Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Three Soldiers, 1568

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  El Greco, Saint Jerome, c. 1590–1600

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  Diego Velázquez, King Philip IV of Spain, 1644

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  Rembrandt, The Polish Rider, 1655

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  Rembrandt, Self-Portrait, 1658

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  Jan Vermeer, Officer and Laughing Girl, 1657

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  Jan Vermeer, Girl Interrupted at Her Music, 1658–1661

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  Jan Vermeer, Mistress and Maid, 1667

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  François Boucher, The Four Seasons (Spring), 1755

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  François Boucher, The Four Seasons (Winter), 1755

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  Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Secret Meeting, 1771

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  Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Progress of Love - Love Letters, 1771-1772

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  Francisco Goya, The Forge, 1817

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  John Constable, The White Horse, 1819

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  J.M.W. Turner, The Harbour of Dieppe, 1826

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  Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Louise de Broglie, Countess d'Haussonville, 1845

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  Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Mother and Children (La Promenade), 1875–76

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  James McNeill Whistler, Harmony in Pink and Grey (Portrait of Lady Meux), 1881

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  J.M.W. Turner, Cologne, the Arrival of a Packet Boat in the Evening, 1826

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  Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Perseus and Andromeda, 1730–31

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  J.M.W. Turner, Mortlake Terrace Early Summer Morning, 1826

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  Hendrick van der Burgh, Drinkers before the Fireplace, 1660

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  Gentile Bellini, Doge Giovanni Mocenigo, 1478-1485

Images for kids

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  Giovanni Bellini, St. Francis in Ecstasy, 1478

See also

In Spanish: Colección Frick para niños