Helen Clay Frick (September 2, 1888 – November 9, 1984) was an American philanthropist and art collector. She was born in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , the third child of the coke and steel magnate Henry Clay Frick (1849–1919) and his wife, Adelaide Howard Childs (1859–1931). Two of her siblings did not reach adulthood, and her father played favorites with his two surviving children, Childs Frick (1883–1965) and Helen. After the reading of their father's will, which favored Helen, the brother and sister were estranged for the rest of their lives.
155-580: The Frick Collection (colloquially known as the Frick ) is an art museum on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City , New York , U.S. It was established in 1935 to preserve the art collection of the industrialist Henry Clay Frick . The collection consists of 14th- to 19th-century European paintings, as well as other pieces of European fine and decorative art. It is located at
310-634: A Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington . In the half-century after Frick died, thirty objects were added to the original collection. After Frick's death but before the opening of the current museum, the Frick estate's trustees bought the Portrait of Comtesse d'Haussonville by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres , as well as a painting by Duccio and the Coronation of the Virgin by Paolo Veneziano . The Giuseppe Bastiani painting Adoration of Magi
465-492: A 19th-century terracotta bust by Joseph Chinard , a marble bust by Houdon; a bust by Massimiliano Soldani Benzi , and a clock. Acquisitions since the 2010s have included 131 Meissen porcelains , as well as 28 objects from collector Alexis Gregory (including rare clocks and enamels). The Frick Collection has historically hosted temporary exhibitions less frequently than similar museums. It initially focused almost exclusively on its permanent collection, with one temporary exhibit
620-537: A 27-member staff to cater to himself, his wife, and Helen. Helen went to finishing school at the Spence School , graduating in 1908. She returned frequently to Pittsburgh, where she had her social debut in 1906. Helen traveled frequently and kept detailed diaries and notes about galleries and museums she visited. By age 17, she had been to Europe nine times, visiting the Louvre , Uffizi , Prado , Pinakothek ,
775-449: A collaboration of museums and galleries that are more interested with the categorization of art. They are interested in the potential use of folksonomy within museums and the requirements for post-processing of terms that have been gathered, both to test their utility and to deploy them in useful ways. The steve.museum is one example of a site that is experimenting with this collaborative philosophy. The participating institutions include
930-473: A decorative-arts conservation program, and the number of annual visitors nearly doubled under his tenure. The museum's collection remained largely unchanged over the next several years, as Helen Frick opposed any expansions, saying that her father would not have wanted items to be added. Helen resigned from the museum's board of trustees in 1961, when the board finally voted to accept Rockefeller's gift. Assistant director Harry D. M. Grier replaced Biebel, becoming
1085-600: A guidebook on the collection, its history, and the Frick House. The Frick launched its Diptych series in 2017; the series consists of short books with essays that relate to paintings from the museum's collection. The museum is ordinarily located at the Henry Clay Frick House at 1 East 70th Street, which is part of Fifth Avenue's Museum Mile . The house spans an entire blockfront on Fifth Avenue between 70th and 71st Streets. The original structure from 1914
1240-748: A historical overview of St. Francis in the Desert . After some works from the Mauritshuis in The Hague were displayed at the Frick in 2013, the Frick displayed several paintings at the Mauritshuis in 2015, marking the first time that the Frick lent paintings to a European museum. During the mid- and late 2010s, the subjects of the Frick's exhibits included paintings from the Scottish National Gallery 's collection, paintings from
1395-486: A home to provide the women with the opportunity to rest and recuperate. The home became known as the "Iron Rail Vacation Home for Working Girls". In 1917, when the United States entered World War I, the romantic relationship between Helen and Fordyce St. John was severed when his hospital sent him to serve in a surgical unit at a war hospital in northern France. The relationship may have begun as early as 1913, but
1550-433: A major factor in social mobility (for example, getting a higher-paid, higher-status job). The argument states that certain art museums are aimed at perpetuating aristocratic and upper class ideals of taste and excludes segments of society without the social opportunities to develop such interest. The fine arts thus perpetuate social inequality by creating divisions between different social groups. This argument also ties in with
1705-911: A marriage between the two. Helen decided to join the war effort: she applied for and received permission to establish a Frick unit under the Red Cross. With four other women, Helen left for France in November 1917, arriving in Paris in December where she went to work immediately helping to wrap 150,000 Christmas packages being sent to soldiers at the front. After Christmas she arrived in Bourg-en-Bresse where her unit worked with refugee women and children. Eventually she would become responsible for refugees in 70 villages, and she asked her father for funds to build an orphanage. During that trip she witnessed
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#17327879160361860-615: A million photocopies of artwork, including objects that are not in the museum's collection. The Frick has been part of the New York Art Resources Consortium (NYARC), which also includes the Museum of Modern Art and Brooklyn Museum , since 2007. NYARC operates Arcade, an online catalog that combines the collections of the three museums' libraries. The Center for the History of Collecting, also founded in 2007,
2015-505: A mobile app in 2014, allowing visitors to bookmark artworks in the museum's collection. After the Frick closed for renovation, museum officials launched several digital programs, including drawing classes and discussions about artwork. Every year since 2000, the Frick hosts the Young Fellows Ball, a springtime gala for philanthropists who are largely under age 40. The museum also started hosting an annual Garden Party in 2008;
2170-481: A month in the middle of the year. Artworks were arranged based on how they blended in with the house's ambiance, rather than being arranged by year. Within a year of the museum's opening, demand had declined enough that officials decided to scale down, and then eliminate, its timed-entry ticketing system. The ropes throughout the house were taken down, and visitors were allowed to visit the Frick House's rooms in any order. Museum officials also presented lectures five days
2325-636: A nature preserve in Mount Kisco, New York . She was also an avid gardener and belonged to the Bedford Garden Club. Helen's father was chairman of the Carnegie Steel Company , a partner in business with Andrew Carnegie ; together the two men founded United States Steel Corporation . Helen's early life was shaped by her father's wealth and reputation as a ruthless industrialist and union strikebreaker, and especially by
2480-504: A neighboring townhouse at 9 East 70th Street in 1940 and used that building as storage space. Museum officials constructed a vault in 1941 to protect the artwork from air raids . During World War II, the museum continued to host visitors, but some rooms were closed, and more than five dozen paintings and all of the sculptures were moved into storage. Museum officials took these pieces out of storage in May 1945 and restored them; other artworks in
2635-402: A number of online art catalogues and galleries that have been developed independently of the support of any individual museum. Many of these, like American Art Gallery, are attempts to develop galleries of artwork that are encyclopedic or historical in focus, while others are commercial efforts to sell the work of contemporary artists. A limited number of such sites have independent importance in
2790-439: A position he would hold for thirty-five years. As part of a master plan in 1967, the Frick's trustees drew up plans for an annex at 7 and 9 East 70th Street. By the early 1970s, the museum recorded about 800 daily visitors and employed 75 staff members. The next year, the museum began asking visitors to pay an optional admission fee due to rising taxes and expenses. After Grier was killed in a traffic accident in 1972, Everett Fahy
2945-470: A reputation as an enemy of the working class, and he became known as "Frick, the strike breaker". Two days after a July 23, 1892, assassination attempt, Frick's newborn son died. A year earlier his first-born daughter, Martha, died – from swallowing a pin while on a trip in Europe – after an excruciatingly painful illness that lasted several years. Her sister's illness formed Helen's earliest memories. After
3100-520: A section of the public. In classical times , religious institutions began to function as an early form of art gallery. Wealthy Roman collectors of engraved gems and other precious objects, such as Julius Caesar , often donated their collections to temples. It is unclear how easy it was in practice for the public to view these items. In Europe, from the Late Medieval period onwards, areas in royal palaces, castles , and large country houses of
3255-503: A separate two and one-half story building was constructed at 6 East 71st Street to house the library, which was replaced in 1935 by the present thirteen story building at 10 East 71st Street. The Library houses photographs and archival records that document the history of Western art, many works of which were lost during World Wars I and II. She also established an art library at the University of Pittsburgh and, later in her life, built
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#17327879160363410-612: A series of rooms dedicated to specific historic periods (e.g. Ancient Egypt ) or other significant themed groupings of works (e.g. the gypsotheque or collection of plaster casts as in the Ashmolean Museum ) within a museum with a more varied collection are referred to as specific galleries, e.g. Egyptian Gallery or Cast Gallery . Works on paper, such as drawings , pastels , watercolors , prints , and photographs are typically not permanently displayed for reasons of conservation . Instead, public access to these materials
3565-475: A set of porcelains. Toward the end of Frick's life, he focused on porcelains, sculptures, and furniture. Although Frick made over a thousand acquisitions over his lifetime, he resold most of the things he bought. The original collection contained 635 pieces of art or decorations when Frick died. When the museum opened, it displayed 136 or about 200 paintings in addition to porcelains, enamels, and bronzes. There were also 80 sculptures on display. Helen Clay Frick and
3720-418: A venue for other cultural exchanges and artistic activities, such as lectures, jewelry, performance arts , music concerts, or poetry readings. Art museums also frequently host themed temporary exhibitions, which often include items on loan from other collections. An institution dedicated to the display of art can be called an art museum or an art gallery, and the two terms may be used interchangeably. This
3875-400: A week during the late 1930s, and they started hosting afternoon concert series in November 1938; these concerts and lectures continued throughout Clapp's tenure at the museum. Clapp also obtained fresh flowers each day and placed them in the first-floor galleries for esthetic purposes. Three magnolia trees were planted on the grounds in 1939. To expand their land holdings, museum officials bought
4030-521: A year during the 1960s. Since 1972, the Frick has sometimes hosted small exhibitions on narrowly defined topics; in some cases, exhibitions have consisted of a single painting. By the 2010s, the museum hosted five exhibits a year on average, and exhibitions were scheduled several years in advance. Temporary exhibitions in the 1970s included an exhibit in honor of the museum's late director Harry D. M. Grier, bronzes by Severo Calzetta da Ravenna , and drawings by Fragonard. Topics of temporary exhibitions during
4185-601: Is also part of the library. The Frick is a member of the International Consortium of Photo Archives (PHAROS), which operates a database of digitized artworks from the collections of 14 art museums. Art museum An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art , usually from the museum 's own collection . It might be in public or private ownership, be accessible to all, or have restrictions in place. Although primarily concerned with visual art , art museums are often used as
4340-411: Is also prohibited from selling items in its collection and seldom acquires new works. Some of the works are normally not visible to the public but can be displayed as necessary. The Frick has sometimes borrowed paintings for long periods, including a portrait of Cosimo de' Medici that was displayed in the museum from 1970 to 1989. Purchases of new art were funded by the museum's endowment until 2016, when
4495-416: Is also sometimes used to describe businesses which display art for sale, but these are not art museums. Throughout history, large and expensive works of art have generally been commissioned by religious institutions or political leaders and been displayed in temples, churches, and palaces . Although these collections of art were not open to the general public, they were often made available for viewing for
4650-475: Is housed at a 13-story building at 10 East 71st Street (next to the original mansion). Prior to the library building's opening, the basement bowling alley was used as storage space for the library's collection. The library has always been open to the public, except during World War II, when it was closed for six months, and during the COVID-19 pandemic and 2020 renovation, when it was shuttered while being moved to
4805-559: Is provided by a dedicated print room located within the museum. Murals or mosaics often remain where they have been created ( in situ ), although many have also been removed to galleries. Various forms of 20th-century art, such as land art and performance art , also usually exist outside a gallery. Photographic records of these kinds of art are often shown in galleries, however. Most museums and large art galleries own more works than they have room to display. The rest are held in reserve collections , on or off-site. A sculpture garden
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4960-756: Is reflected in the names of institutions around the world, some of which are considered art galleries, such as the National Gallery in London and Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin , and some of which are considered museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo . The phrase "art gallery"
5115-499: Is scheduled to reopen in April 2025. The Frick has about 1,500 pieces in its collection as of 2021. Artists with works in the collection include Bellini , Fragonard , Gainsborough , Goya , Holbein , Rembrandt , Titian , Turner , Velázquez , Vermeer , and Whistler . The museum has gradually acquired additional pieces over the years to supplement the paintings in Frick's original collection. In addition to its permanent collection,
5270-557: Is similar to an art gallery, presenting sculpture in an outdoor space. Sculpture has grown in popularity with sculptures installed in open spaces on both a permanent and temporary basis. Most larger paintings from about 1530 onwards were designed to be seen either in churches or palaces, and many buildings built as palaces now function successfully as art museums. By the 18th century additions to palaces and country houses were sometimes intended specifically as galleries for viewing art, and designed with that in mind. The architectural form of
5425-502: Is to shape identity and memory, cultural heritage, distilled narratives and treasured stories. Many art museums throughout history have been designed with a cultural purpose or been subject to political intervention. In particular, national art galleries have been thought to incite feelings of nationalism . This has occurred in both democratic and non-democratic countries, although authoritarian regimes have historically exercised more control over administration of art museums. Ludwig Justi
5580-677: The British Museum was established and the Old Royal Library collection of manuscripts was donated to it for public viewing. In 1777, a proposal to the British government was put forward by MP John Wilkes to buy the art collection of the late Sir Robert Walpole , who had amassed one of the greatest such collections in Europe , and house it in a specially built wing of the British Museum for public viewing. After much debate,
5735-772: The Guggenheim Museum in New York City by Frank Lloyd Wright , the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao by Frank Gehry , Centre Pompidou-Metz by Shigeru Ban , and the redesign of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art by Mario Botta . Some critics argue these galleries defeat their purposes because their dramatic interior spaces distract the eye from the paintings they are supposed to exhibit. Museums are more than just mere 'fixed structures designed to house collections.' Their purpose
5890-515: The Guggenheim Museum , the Cleveland Museum of Art , the Metropolitan Museum of Art , and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art . There are relatively few local/regional/national organizations dedicated specifically to art museums. Most art museums are associated with local/regional/national organizations for the arts , humanities or museums in general. Many of these organizations are listed as follows: Helen Clay Frick She
6045-770: The Henry Clay Frick House , a Beaux-Arts mansion designed for Henry Clay Frick. The Frick also houses the Frick Art Research Library , an art history research center established by Frick's daughter Helen Clay Frick in 1920, which contains sales catalogs, books, periodicals, and photographs. The museum dates to 1920, when the trustees of Frick's estate formed the Frick Collection Inc. to care for his art collection, which he had bequeathed for public use. After Frick's wife Adelaide Frick died in 1931, John Russell Pope converted
6200-666: The Museo dell'Opera del Duomo in Florence, works by Andrea del Sarto , objects by Pierre Gouthière , and canvases by J. M. W. Turner . When the Frick moved to 945 Madison Avenue in the early 2020s, its exhibits included a showcase of Barkley Hendricks paintings (the museum's first exhibit of a black artist's art) and a pair of paintings by Giovanni Bellini and Giorgio da Castelfranco . The museum hosts special events, such as academic symposiums , concerts, and classes. The educational programs are led by Rika Burnham , who became head of
6355-698: The Musée du Louvre during the French Revolution in 1793 as a public museum for much of the former French royal collection marked an important stage in the development of public access to art by transferring the ownership to a republican state; but it was a continuation of trends already well established. The building now occupied by the Prado in Madrid was built before the French Revolution for
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6510-521: The National Gallery , as well as visiting churches and cathedrals. Additionally, she gained access to private collections with her father on buying expeditions. It was during these trips that she became interested in art archives, spending time in the archives at London's Record Office and in Paris' Musee des Archives. In 1908, she went with her family to Europe where they visited London, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona and Florence. In Paris, Helen, her father and brother visited Alphonse James de Rothschild 's widow,
6665-648: The Renwick Gallery , built in 1859. Now a part of the Smithsonian Institution , the Renwick housed William Wilson Corcoran 's collection of American and European art. The building was designed by James Renwick Jr. and finally completed in 1874. It is located at 1661 Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Renwick designed it after the Louvre's Tuileries addition. At the time of its construction, it
6820-557: The Rijksmuseum , eighteenth- and nineteenth-century drawings from the Stanford Museum , a single Claude Monet painting, drawings by German artists, and drawings by French artists. In 1999, several items in the permanent collection were taken out of storage specifically to complement an exhibition of Ingres's Portrait of Comtesse d'Haussonville . In the early 2000s, the topics of the Frick's exhibitions included drawings in
6975-543: The University of Pittsburgh . The institution was deeply in debt and had cut fine arts courses, but the acquisition of land in Oakland that previously belonged to the Frick estate provided space in Oakland for expansion. Bowman wanted to build a "cathedral of light" there; Helen funded the university's fine arts department with the proviso of "having the final selection of the department head." She went on to endow and found
7130-553: The mystification of fine arts . Research suggests that the context in which an artwork is being presented has significant influence on its reception by the audience, and viewers shown artworks in a museum rated them more highly than when displayed in a "laboratory" setting Most art museums have only limited online collections, but a few museums, as well as some libraries and government agencies, have developed substantial online catalogues. Museums, libraries, and government agencies with substantial online collections include: There are
7285-544: The 17th century onwards, often based around a collection of the cabinet of curiosities type. The first such museum was the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford , opened in 1683 to house and display the artefacts of Elias Ashmole that were given to Oxford University in a bequest. The Kunstmuseum Basel , through its lineage which extends back to the Amerbach Cabinet , which included a collection of works by Hans Holbein
7440-633: The 18th century. In Italy, the art tourism of the Grand Tour became a major industry from the 18th century onwards, and cities made efforts to make their key works accessible. The Capitoline Museums began in 1471 with a donation of classical sculpture to the city of Rome by the Papacy , while the Vatican Museums , whose collections are still owned by the Pope, trace their foundation to 1506, when
7595-401: The 1970s, a number of political theorists and social commentators have pointed to the political implications of art museums and social relations. Pierre Bourdieu , for instance, argued that in spite the apparent freedom of choice in the arts, people's artistic preferences (such as classical music, rock, traditional music) strongly tie in with their social position. So called cultural capital is
7750-414: The 1980s included busts by Houdon, French clocks, terracotta sculptures by Clodion , drawings by Ingres, Henry Clay Frick's earliest acquisitions, and Old Master paintings. Especially in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the museum has hosted temporary exhibitions about singular artworks or artists. Among the items exhibited in the 1990s were works by French painter Nicolas Lancret , watercolors from
7905-498: The 1990s, the library had an estimated 235,000 volumes, which grew to 280,000 by the late 2000s. The collections of the library focus on art of the Western tradition from the fourth century to the mid-twentieth century, and chiefly include information about paintings, drawings, sculpture, prints, and illuminated manuscripts. Archival materials supplement its research collections. The Frick Art Research Library Photoarchive contains over
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#17327879160368060-471: The 2010s included a self-portrait by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo that had been owned by Henry Clay Frick's grandson . In 2023, the Frick obtained Giovanni Battista Moroni 's painting Portrait of a Lady , the first Renaissance-era portrait of a woman in the collection. The modern-day museum's collection includes numerous works of sculpture and porcelain , in addition to 18th-century French furniture , Limoges enamel , and Oriental rugs . The objects in
8215-692: The Baroness Rothschild, whose art collection was reputedly the most important in Europe. Helen's father bought two El Grecos on Helen's advice. Back in New York, she established a home for women textile workers in Wenham, Massachusetts . On a visit to Boston's North Shore , she had become aware of the life of shoe-workers in Lynn, Massachusetts , and in the textile mills farther north, and upon her return from Europe she asked her father to purchase
8370-537: The Fragonard and Boucher rooms in the 1980s. Charles Ryskamp , the former director of the Pierpont Morgan Library , was appointed as the Frick's fifth director in December 1986 after Fahy's resignation, though he did not assume that position for another six months. Under Ryskamp's directorship, some of the paintings were rearranged or brought out of storage. By the 1990s, the art reference library
8525-513: The Frick Art Museum on the grounds of Clayton to house her private art collection. Her interests and philanthropy efforts also extended to the environment. In 1908, she requested that her debutante gift from her father be a donation of land to the city of Pittsburgh for the purpose of becoming a public park. This land donation would become Frick Park . In the 1950s, she made her own land donation and established Westmoreland Sanctuary,
8680-546: The Frick Art Reference Library, was organized at the mansion after Frick's death, and a dedicated library building opened the next year. During the 1920s, the library added thousands of volumes and photographs to its holdings. Over the years, four additional trustees had to be appointed after their predecessors died. After Adelaide Frick's death in October 1931, the trustees were finally allowed to open
8835-558: The Frick Collection have included Ian Bostridge , Matthias Goerne , Guarneri String Quartet , Wanda Landowska , Gregor Piatigorsky , Artur Schnabel , and Kiri Te Kanawa . The concerts were broadcast on radio starting in 1939, first on the Municipal Broadcasting System , then on American Public Radio and WNYC . Although visitors originally could listen to the concerts free of charge (even after
8990-477: The Frick Collection. The two fought over the manner in which the house should be transformed into a museum, whether the costly furniture should be kept (she wanted it, he did not), and Helen resisted his efforts to add pieces from his own collection. She eventually resigned the position in 1961, "in a fury," after yet another fight with the Rockefellers. Worried at the outbreak of World War II and reminded of
9145-492: The Frick House into a museum, which opened on December 16, 1935. The museum acquired additional works of art over the years, and it expanded the house in 1977 to accommodate increasing visitation. Following fundraising campaigns in the 2000s, a further expansion was announced in the 2010s. From 2021 until March 2024, during the renovation of the Frick House, the Frick Madison operated at 945 Madison Avenue . The Frick House
9300-449: The Frick House while Frick decided whether to buy them. A bust of Henry Clay Frick by Malvina Hoffman was gifted to the museum when it opened in 1935. Other acquisitions of sculpture in the mid-20th century included a Diana bust by Jean-Antoine Houdon , a 15th-century bronze figure of an angel, and a pair of 15th-century Italian marble busts. In the 1990s and 2000s, the Frick received Winthrop Edey 's collection of timekeeping pieces,
9455-500: The Frick House's courtyard. It was relatively low-profile compared to others in New York City, only sporadically expanding its collection and hosting small temporary exhibitions. After Helen Frick died in 1984, the museum took over responsibility for the Frick Art Research Library; initially, the library had no endowment as Helen had not provided anything for the library in her will. Ceiling lights were installed in
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#17327879160369610-576: The Frick House's ornate decoration; the paintings were also grouped according to their age and region of origin. The Frick Madison also included a café. The museum had raised $ 242 million for its capital campaign by the end of 2023. Wardropper announced in January 2024 that he would resign the following year, after the Frick House's renovation was complete. The Frick Madison closed on March 3, 2024. The Henry Clay Frick House and Frick Art Research Library were originally expected to reopen in late 2024, but this
9765-766: The Frick House. Henry Clay Frick was a coke and steel magnate. As early as 1870, he had hung pictures throughout his house in Broadford, Pennsylvania . Frick acquired the first painting in his permanent collection, Luis Jiménez's In the Louvre, in 1880, after moving to Pittsburgh . He did not begin buying paintings in large numbers until the mid-1890s, and he began devoting significant amounts of time to his collection. This made Frick one of several prominent American businessmen who also collected art, along with figures such as Henry Havemeyer and J. P. Morgan . In explaining why he collected art, Frick said, "I can make money... I cannot make pictures." He curated his collection with
9920-702: The Frick House. A group named Friends of the Fellows of the Frick Collection was formed to raise interest in the museum. Colin Bailey was appointed as chief curator in 2000 after Munhall resigned. During the late 1990s, the Helen Clay Frick Foundation proposed moving its archives in Pittsburgh to the Frick Collection's archives, prompting an intra-family debate over whether the collections should be merged. The foundation's collection ultimately
10075-407: The Frick Madison. The library is typically open free of charge to "any adult with a serious interest in art". In the late 20th century, the library served 6,000 people a year on average, most of whom made advance reservations or requests. Helen Frick acted as director for six decades, during which time its collection expanded to include 50,000 sales catalogs, 400,000 photographs, and 150,000 books. By
10230-585: The Frick announced in June 2015 that it would draw up new designs. To attract younger visitors, the museum began hosting free events in the mid-2010s, such as First Fridays. The Frick hired Annabelle Selldorf to design a revised expansion plan for the museum, which was announced in April 2018; the LPC approved Selldorf's plans that June. The Frick then sought to relocate to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum temporarily, but
10385-455: The Frick family collection of catalogs, postcards and photographs, mounting each reproduction and labeling it with information about artist, provenance, exhibition histories for future reference. She went on to hire agents in Europe to buy catalogues and she hired a professional photographer to begin photographing art in the US and in Europe, in "the days when one could almost buy some works of art for
10540-399: The Frick family plot at Homewood Cemetery in Pittsburgh. Much of her later life was spent in Pittsburgh, at Clayton, where she kept a permanent staff. Clayton's second floor contains personal family archives spanning almost a century, which proved to be useful to architects when, after Helen's death, the house underwent a full restoration to its original state before opening to the public as
10695-437: The Frick increased during the decade. Further restorations of the museum's galleries took place through the late 2000s to attract visitors. Poulet announced her retirement in September 2010, and Ian Wardropper was hired as the museum's director in 2011. A sculpture gallery, designed by Davis Brody Bond , opened at the Frick House in December 2011, becoming the first new gallery at the museum in three decades. Bailey resigned as
10850-409: The Frick residence into the Frick Collection. In 1920, she went back to Europe, revisiting sites she had known before the war, taking pictures and documenting the damage. In northern France, traveling through Berry-au-Bac and on to Soissons , she was appalled at the destruction, particularly to Soissons Cathedral . She photographed the damage, accumulating a record of the devastation wrought during
11005-430: The Frick's classification as a charity, the museum had to raise a third of its budget from donations. The Frick created programs to attract major donors and art collectors, and it began charging admission fees for concerts in 2005. During the 2000s decade, the Frick did not acquire many additional items. In contrast to larger museums, it generally hosted small, detailed exhibits, though the number of short-term exhibitions at
11160-655: The Frick's first Meissen porcelain show, pieces from the Norton Simon Museum 's collection, and a single painting by Parmigianino. The Frick hosted various exhibits in honor of its 75th anniversary in 2010, including an exhibition on its own founding. Other early-2010s exhibits included works from the Dulwich Picture Gallery , works from the Courtauld Gallery , Picasso drawings, Renoir paintings, Piero della Francesca panels, and
11315-584: The Guggenheim was available for only four months. By September 2018, the Frick was negotiating to take over the Whitney Museum 's space at 945 Madison Avenue ; the Frick finalized a two-year lease for that building in 2020. The Frick closed in mid-March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City ; the opening of the temporary location was delayed due to the pandemic. The museum's collection
11470-533: The Homestead Strike, Carnegie and Frick became bitter enemies over control of Carnegie's holdings. At the end of the 1890s, Carnegie moved to New York, and Frick moved his family there a few years later, in 1905. He leased the Vanderbilt house at 640 5th Avenue, bought the old Lenox Library and began building the Henry Clay Frick House on 5th Avenue, on which he spent about $ 5 million. He employed
11625-489: The LPC approved. The original annex was canceled that November, and Frick officials subsequently decided to build a one-story wing on the Widener House's site. The annex had been proposed because, at the time, the mansion could accommodate only 250 people at once. Under Fahy's tenure, the museum began hosting more temporary exhibits, which it had seldom held before Fahy took over. The Frick began charging admission for
11780-556: The Marquis Ambrose de Spinola , Rembrandt's An Old Woman Reflecting Over the Lecture , and Gainsborough 's Mall between 1915 and 1916 alone. He also bought four Boucher panels, although he turned down the opportunity to buy additional panels. From 1917 through 1919, Frick obtained several pieces of Boucher tapestry furniture, Van Dyck's Countess of Clanbrazil , Hals's Portrait of a Man , Vermeer's Mistress and Maid , and
11935-566: The Marxist theory of mystification and elite culture . Furthermore, certain art galleries, such as the National Gallery in London and the Louvre in Paris are situated in buildings of considerable emotional impact. The Louvre in Paris is for instance located in the former Royal Castle of the ancient regime , and is thus clearly designed with a political agenda. It has been argued that such buildings create feelings of subjugation and adds to
12090-579: The Money Changers from the Temple , Titian's Portrait of a Man in a Red Cap , one of Rembrandt's self-portraits , and della Francesca's St. John the Evangelist . Some of the earliest works in Frick's collection were portraits of his family, created for his Pittsburgh residence. At the beginning of the 20th century, Frick bought works such as Rembrandt's Portrait of a Young Artist (possibly
12245-536: The Younger and purchased by the city of Basel in 1661, is considered to be the first museum of art open to the public in the world. In the second half of the 18th century, many private collections of art were opened to the public, and during and after the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars , many royal collections were nationalized, even where the monarchy remained in place, as in Spain and Bavaria . In 1753,
12400-433: The active lending-out of a museum's collected objects in order to enhance education at schools and to aid in the cultural development of individual members of the community. Finally, Dana saw branch museums throughout a city as a good method of making sure that every citizen has access to its benefits. Dana's view of the ideal museum sought to invest a wider variety of people in it, and was self-consciously not elitist. Since
12555-529: The age of 69, bequeathing the house as a public museum for his art collection. His widow Adelaide Howard Childs Frick continued living in the mansion with her daughter Helen ; if Adelaide died or moved away, the house would be converted to a public museum. At the time, the collection alone was worth $ 30 million, and Frick also provided a $ 15 million endowment for the maintenance of the collection. Nine people, including Adelaide, Helen, and Helen's brother Childs , were named as trustees of his estate; Childs served as
12710-418: The art world. The large auction houses, such as Sotheby's , Bonhams , and Christie's , maintain large online databases of art which they have auctioned or are auctioning. Bridgeman Art Library serves as a central source of reproductions of artwork, with access limited to museums, art dealers , and other professionals or professional organizations. There are also online galleries that have been developed by
12865-592: The attempt on his life by Alexander Berkman , after the Homestead Strike of 1892. The strike lasted 60 days, resulted in 10 deaths and 60 wounded – the Pinkertons had been brought in to quell the strike – and only ended when the National Guard were sent in by the order of Pennsylvania's governor. Frick's actions were seen as heroic by men such as Andrew Mellon and J. P. Morgan but earned him
13020-529: The board of trustees expanded the collection after his death; in 2006, the New York Times estimated that about 30 percent of the collection had been acquired after Frick died. Nonetheless, until 1948, the museum accepted donations of art only from Frick family members. The museum can lend works acquired after Frick's death, but not works that he owned in his lifetime; this restriction has prevented works from appearing in other museums' exhibitions. The Frick
13175-583: The building, it was "instantly recognized at one of the most important art libraries in the world." It would grow into a records library with over 300,000 books and exhibition catalogues, extensive auction and provenance records, and 1.2 million images of art from the 4th to the 20th centuries; it contains the only records for many pieces of art lost or destroyed during both World Wars. Between 1922 and 1967, Helen commissioned 57,000 large format negatives. In Italy church interiors were lit, making it possible to photograph centuries-old frescoes and altarpieces, such as
13330-446: The chief curator in 2013, and Xavier F. Salomon was hired as the chief curator the same year. During the 2010s, the Frick began raising $ 290 million for its renovation. The collection had reached more than 1,100 works by the mid-2010s. In addition, the museum was hosting an average of five temporary exhibits per year. The Frick House's facilities were not adequate for the museum's modern needs. For example, paintings had to be carried into
13485-556: The city of New York refused its offer as a museum. Her mother and older brother, Childs Frick , received considerably less, which would cause ongoing tension and conflict for Helen in future years. In the meantime, she bought a farm in Bedford Village , New York, and joined the exclusively male board of the Frick collection. She devoted her adult life to defending her father's public image from attack and continuing his tradition of philanthropy. The Frick Collection in New York
13640-513: The collection include 18th-century tapestries that belonged to Louis XV and Louis XVI of France. Frick had acquired some objects from the J. P. Morgan estate specifically to complement the visual art in his collection. Some of these acquisitions included 18th-century French sculptures and furniture, a hawthorn beaker, and Chinese porcelains. In one case, Frick paid $ 1.5 million for some of Morgan's 44 enamels and 225 bronzes. He also acquired 40 Limoges enamels from Morgan's collection in 1919, one of
13795-461: The collection of J. P. Morgan and moved the panels to his house's drawing room. At the time of the house's completion, he owned paintings by such artists as El Greco, Goya, Hals, Rembrandt, Romney, Titian, Anthony van Dyck, and Velázquez. In the late 1910s, Frick acquired additional pieces from outside the Morgan collection, such as Hans Holbein 's portrait of Thomas Cromwell , Rubens 's Portrait of
13950-520: The collection of the Albertina museum, paintings from John Hay Whitney 's collection, El Greco paintings, antique clocks, pieces from the Toledo Museum of Art 's collection, a set of Parmigianino paintings, and three consecutive exhibits of antique bronzes. Later in the decade, the temporary exhibitions included portraits by Hans Memling , paintings by Paolo Veronese , a show of French art,
14105-508: The collection was reassessed at $ 13 million in 1921; this figure was repeated in a revised appraisal of Frick's estate that was filed with the New York state government in 1923. Meanwhile, Helen Frick studied plans for the Witt Library in London in the early 1920s, as she wanted to create a library for Frick's personal collection. Helen catalogued most of the collection over the next decade. The Frick Art Research Library , originally named
14260-506: The cost of making photographs of them." She converted the mansion's basement bowling alley to store the collection, and despite its location it soon gained a reputation among art historians. Eventually the references were moved to New York where the Frick Art Reference Library opened in 1924, in a single story building on E. 71st Street. In the mid-1920s she responded to John Gabbert Bowman 's request for funding
14415-469: The deaths of her siblings, Helen grew up in a household of obsessive mourning, and she was greatly affected by witnessing her sister's death. She grew up in Pittsburgh on the family's estate, Clayton , where she was educated by a Swiss governess. As a child she showed an interest in her father's art collection, going so far as advising and giving opinions about various paintings. In the 1890s, after
14570-409: The destruction of art works and churches. She chose never to marry and, on her father's death in 1919, when she was 31, she inherited $ 38 million, making her the country's wealthiest unmarried woman. She received $ 5 million outright; the rest in shares, properties and companies; as well as $ 15 million to endow the Frick art collection and control of the collection – which would become entirely hers if
14725-737: The devastation she witnessed during World War I, in 1941 Helen had every single record in the art archives microfilmed, which were stored, at first, in an underground bank vault, and later moved to the Midwest. As early as 1943, the Committee for the Protection of Cultural Treasures in War Areas was consulting with the library, compiling lists for the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program , which located, identified and returned looted art at
14880-620: The end of World War II. Helen also owned an estate in Westchester County, New York , known as Westmoreland Farms. She donated part of her land to create Westmoreland Sanctuary, a nature preserve, in 1957. She was insistent that there be no charge for visitors to the Sanctuary and was a lifelong supporter of the nonprofit. In the early 1960s, she funded the building of the Frick Fine Arts Building to house
15035-501: The end of the 19th century, and his acquisitions during the 1900s were increasingly composed of Old Master artworks. By the early 1910s, his collection consisted largely of English and Dutch paintings, with scattered French and Spanish paintings; a magazine article from that time described him as having relatively little interest in Italian Renaissance work. The paintings ranged from the 14th to 19th centuries, and many of
15190-576: The entire building solely intended to be an art gallery was arguably established by Sir John Soane with his design for the Dulwich Picture Gallery in 1817. This established the gallery as a series of interconnected rooms with largely uninterrupted wall spaces for hanging pictures and indirect lighting from skylights or roof lanterns . The late 19th century saw a boom in the building of public art galleries in Europe and America, becoming an essential cultural feature of larger cities. More art galleries rose up alongside museums and public libraries as part of
15345-437: The event, which began as a members-only gathering, evolved into an annual fundraiser. In 2016, the Frick introduced First Fridays, in which patrons could visit the museum for free on the first Friday of every month. First Fridays include gallery talks and activities for visitors. The Concerts from the Frick Collection series was launched in 1938 and has continued through the 20th and 21st centuries. Musicians who have performed at
15500-549: The fine arts department at the University of Pittsburgh. She was reticent about her involvement with the project and refused, at first, to have her name associated with it. Eventually she allowed a Pittsburgh reporter to interview her, revealing she was the building's donor. A dispute eventually severed the relationship with the university, involving the employment of Germans – Helen's World War I experience instilled an intense dislike of Germans she never overcame – in addition to
15655-692: The first Old Master painting in the collection), Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot 's Ville d'Avray , Constant Troyon 's A Pasture in Normandy , and Vermeer's Girl Interrupted at Her Music . From 1905 to 1915, Frick also acquired paintings such as Hals's Portrait of a Woman , Velázquez's Portrait of Philip IV in Fraga , Rembrandt's A Dutch Merchant , and Rembrandt's The Polish Rider . After Frick had finished his own mansion, he brought over several paintings of his firstborn daughter Martha, who had died in her childhood. He also obtained 14 Fragonard panels from
15810-464: The first time in 1976. The annex was completed the next year, along with a garden, designed by British landscape architect Russell Page . The Frick renovated the Boucher Room and cleaned and rearranged its paintings during the following decade. By the mid-1980s, the museum displayed 169 works of art, and the galleries occupied 16 rooms. The museum periodically hosted chamber music performances in
15965-491: The founder of the Newark Museum , saw the traditional art museum as a useless public institution, one that focused more on fashion and conformity rather than education and uplift. Indeed, Dana's ideal museum would be one best suited for active and vigorous use by the average citizen, located near the center of their daily movement. In addition, Dana's conception of the perfect museum included a wider variety of objects than
16120-558: The grander English country houses could be toured by the respectable for a tip to the housekeeper, during the long periods when the family were not in residence. Special arrangements were made to allow the public to see many royal or private collections placed in galleries, as with most of the paintings of the Orleans Collection , which were housed in a wing of the Palais-Royal in Paris and could be visited for most of
16275-444: The head of the Frick estate's board of trustees until his death in 1965. Per the terms of Frick's will, the trustees moved to incorporate Frick's art collection in April 1920, submitting articles of incorporation to the New York state government. The Frick Collection Inc. was incorporated that month. The New York and Pennsylvania state governments fought over which government should collect taxes from Frick's estate. Amid this dispute,
16430-492: The help of Joseph Duveen, 1st Baron Duveen . When the Frick family moved from Pittsburgh to New York City in 1905, they leased the William H. Vanderbilt House at 640 Fifth Avenue , and Frick expanded his collection during that time. The collection was spread across their homes in New York, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts. Thomas Hastings of Carrère and Hastings designed Frick's permanent house at 1 East 70th Street , which
16585-467: The house have been modified over the years specifically to accommodate the artwork, including a room for the Fragonard panels. In addition to the artwork and artifacts on display, there are bookcases placed throughout the Frick House's rooms, and some rooms have various other pieces of furniture such as a dining table. The Frick Collection oversees the Frick Art Research Library, which was established in 1920 and opened to researchers in June 1924. The library
16740-418: The house to the public; they announced in January 1933 that the collection would likely open to the public within a year. John Russell Pope was hired to alter and enlarge the house. Frederick Mortimer Clapp , who had joined the Frick Collection as an advisor in 1931, was hired as the museum's first director. Work on the mansion began in December 1933. A new library wing was constructed on 71st Street to replace
16895-439: The house were rearranged and cleaned as well. The Frick acquired another townhouse at 7 East 70th Street in 1947 and replaced it with a service wing. By the late 1940s, the museum had cumulatively spent about $ 2.9 million in acquisitions since Frick's death. When John D. Rockefeller Jr. offered to donate several pieces of artwork in 1948, Helen Frick objected, arguing that the museum only accepted gifts from Frick family members. In
17050-851: The idea was eventually abandoned due to the great expense, and twenty years later, the collection was bought by Tsaritsa Catherine the Great of Russia and housed in the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg . The Bavarian royal collection (now in the Alte Pinakothek , Munich) was opened to the public in 1779 and the Medici collection in Florence around 1789 (as the Uffizi Gallery). The opening of
17205-468: The largest category of art museums in the country. While the first of these collections can be traced to learning collections developed in art academies in Western Europe, they are now associated with and housed in centers of higher education of all types. The word gallery being originally an architectural term, the display rooms in museums are often called public galleries . Also frequently,
17360-413: The last things he would personally purchase. Outside of the Morgan collection, Frick also bought the bronzes Bust of a Jurist by Danese Cattaneo , Antonio Galli by Federico Brandani , and Duke of Alba by Jacques Jonghelinck . Although Frick had planned a sculpture gallery to his home in the late 1910s, the lack of other statuary caused him to cancel the plan. Duveen displayed numerous marble busts in
17515-404: The lawsuit that followed, a New York Supreme Court judge ruled that the terms of Frick's will did not prevent the museum from accepting external gifts; the court's Appellate Division upheld this ruling. Rockefeller, who had been on the board of trustees, resigned amid the dispute. Clapp resigned in 1951 and was replaced by the museum's assistant director Franklin M. Biebel . Biebel established
17670-523: The municipal drive for literacy and public education. Over the middle and late twentieth century, earlier architectural styles employed for art museums (such as the Beaux-Arts style of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City or the Gothic and Renaissance Revival architecture of Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum) succumbed to modern styles , such as Deconstructivism . Examples of this trend include
17825-425: The museum did not charge admission fees, but staff distributed timed-entry tickets to prevent crowding. Although about 600 tickets were distributed daily to people who showed up in person, other visitors had to make reservations several weeks in advance due to high demand. Ropes were placed throughout the house to force visitors to follow a specific path. The galleries were originally closed on holidays, Sundays, and for
17980-400: The museum has hosted small temporary exhibitions on narrowly defined topics, as well as academic symposiums , concerts, and classes. The Frick Collection typically has up to 300,000 visitors annually and has an endowment fund to support its programming. Commentary on the museum over the years has been largely positive, particularly in relation to the works themselves and their juxtaposition with
18135-537: The museum launched a website in the 1990s, and replaced the lighting and hosted additional special exhibitions. Sachs also contemplated expanding the exhibition space, adding a café, and relocating the entrance to the house's garden. In addition, the museum began providing complimentary audio guides for the mansion and artworks and, in the early 21st century, added the Bloomberg Connects smartphone app. Museum officials also began allowing parties to be hosted in
18290-408: The museum obtained its first Jean-Antoine Watteau painting, Portal of Valenciennes . The museum's other acquisitions in the 1990s and 2000s included one of Corot's oil sketches, two of Jean-Baptiste Greuze 's portraits, and Gabriel de Saint-Aubin 's The Private Academy . After former director Ryskamp died in 2010, he bequeathed some of his collection to the Frick. The museum's other acquisitions in
18445-401: The museum started charging an admission fee), a separate admission charge for concerts was instituted in 2005. Prior to the 2020s renovation, the concerts were hosted in the Frick House's music room. The collection is detailed in books such as Masterpieces of the Frick Collection , first published in 1970, and Art in the Frick Collection , first published in 1996. The history of the collection
18600-444: The museum through the house's front door, and portraits had to be placed in storage whenever the Frick hosted a visiting show. The concerts at the museum sometimes sold out as well. In 2014, the museum announced plans for a six-story annex on 70th Street designed by Davis Brody Bond. Russell Page's garden on 70th Street would have been demolished to make way for the annex; this prompted opposition from residents and preservationists, and
18755-449: The museum to start admitting children. Museum officials requested a waiver, saying that they would have to install barriers if children were allowed, and they received such a waiver in 1995. In addition, further lighting upgrades were made in the mid-1990s. Ryskamp announced his retirement in 1997. After Samuel Sachs II was named as the museum's sixth director that May, the trustees tasked him with raising funds. Under Sachs's directorship,
18910-423: The museum's collection have included: Several artists, including Holbein, Vermeer, Rembrandt, Turner, Gainsborough, Van Dyck, Fragonard, and Boucher, painted multiple pieces that are in the collection. Included in the modern collection are Fragonard's The Progress of Love , three Vermeer paintings including Mistress and Maid , two van Ruisdael paintings including Quay at Amsterdam , El Greco's Christ Driving
19065-474: The museum's education department in 2008. The Frick's educational programs include online visits for students at secondary schools and postsecondary institutions, as well as courses where a single piece is discussed at length. The Frick also has partnerships with local educational partnerships such as the Ghetto Film School . Docents began hosting lectures in galleries in 2010, and the museum launched
19220-484: The museum's third director in 1964. By the mid-1960s, the Frick had 160 portraits, 80 sculptures, and various other items in its collection. The Frick was open six days a week (except in August, when it was closed) and was still free to enter. The collection was small compared to that of the Metropolitan Museum of Art , which at the time had 365,000 items. Edgar Munhall was hired as the museum's first chief curator in 1965,
19375-508: The museum's trustees established an acquisitions fund. As of 2021, the museum has 1,500 pieces in its collection, including both paintings and other objects; it normally displays 470 objects. Prior to the museum's 2021 renovation, the artwork was displayed in 15 galleries. Frick's collection initially consisted of salon pieces and works by Barbizon School artists, and he bought 90 paintings from Charles Carstairs between 1895 and 1900 alone. He had begun to acquire other types of paintings by
19530-513: The now-lost frescoes by Giovanni Baronzio . More than 8,000 photographs are attributed to Italian photographer Mario Sansoni, who worked for Helen for many years. The family's home on 5th Avenue was transformed into the Frick Collection in 1935. Helen continued as a trustee, to be active in acquisitions. A small woman, described as a "frail little woman," Helen was often in conflict with the male board members, in particular with John D. Rockefeller , whom her father had also appointed as trustee to
19685-416: The original library. Other modifications included a new storage vault and renovations of the Frick family's living space. The museum's opening, originally scheduled for 1934, was postponed because of the complexity of the construction project. The Frick estate also sued the city government in 1935 to obtain a property-tax exemption for the museum, and the taxes were waived the next year, as the Frick Collection
19840-528: The paintings depicted women. There were some chronological gaps in the original collection: for example, there were no 17th-century French paintings when the museum opened, even as the museum had both older and newer French paintings. When Frick died, he was variously cited as having collected 103, 137, "about 140", or 250 paintings. Some of the original paintings in Frick's personal collection were discovered to be forgeries after his death, while other paintings were found to be misattributed. Artists with works in
19995-521: The public a decade later in 1824. Similarly, the National Gallery in Prague was not formed by opening an existing royal or princely art collection to the public, but was created from scratch as a joint project of some Czech aristocrats in 1796. The Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. is generally considered to have been the first art museum in the United States. It was originally housed in
20150-462: The public display of parts of the royal art collection, and similar royal galleries were opened to the public in Vienna , Munich and other capitals. In Great Britain, however, the corresponding Royal Collection remained in the private hands of the monarch, and the first purpose-built national art galleries were the Dulwich Picture Gallery , founded in 1814 and the National Gallery, London opened to
20305-581: The recently discovered Laocoön and His Sons was put on public display. A series of museums on different subjects were opened over subsequent centuries, and many of the buildings of the Vatican were purpose-built as galleries. An early royal treasury opened to the public was the Green Vault of the Kingdom of Saxony in the 1720s. Privately funded museums open to the public began to be established from
20460-418: The rooms on the ground floor, while the majority of the rooms on the second and third floors were decorated by Elsie de Wolfe . Charles Carstairs and Joseph Duveen provided the original decorations for the rooms. Inside the house are the museum's galleries (adapted from the old living spaces of the mansion), as well as a courtyard with reflecting pool, the latter of which is based on a Roman atrium. Some parts of
20615-563: The social elite were often made partially accessible to sections of the public, where art collections could be viewed. At the Palace of Versailles , entrance was restricted to people of certain social classes who were required to wear the proper apparel, which typically included the appropriate accessories, silver shoe buckles and a sword , could be hired from shops outside. The treasuries of cathedrals and large churches, or parts of them, were often set out for public display and veneration. Many of
20770-407: The time of Sachs's resignation, the museum recorded 350,000 annual visitors, 20 percent more than in 1997, but it was running at a $ 1 million annual deficit. Annexes to the museum were proposed in 2001, 2005, and 2008, but all of these plans were canceled because it would have required an extended closure of the museum and still would not have provided sufficient space. The art scholar Anne L. Poulet
20925-399: The traditional art museum, including industrial tools and handicrafts that encourage imagination in areas traditionally considered mundane. This view of the art museum envisions it as one well-suited to an industrial world, indeed enhancing it. Dana viewed paintings and sculptures as much less useful than industrial products, comparing the museum to a department store. In addition, he encouraged
21080-414: The two kept it quiet, although they were seen together in public on occasion. St. John apparently adored Helen and she seemed to be in love with him, and an engagement announcement between the two had been expected before his departure. Why he left for Europe without following through on his promise to marry Helen is unknown, but was perhaps because Helen's brother told St. John that Frick would never sanction
21235-467: The university's acquisition of modern art, which she equally disliked. In 1970, she built the Frick Art Museum on the grounds of Clayton to house her personal art collection. Notoriously reclusive during her last years, she died at her Clayton home in Pittsburgh at age 96 on November 9, 1984, leaving a personal estate estimated to be worth $ 15 million. She is buried alongside her parents in
21390-568: The university's teaching collection in 1928, and continued to give Bowman funds to pay workers to complete what eventually came to be called the Cathedral of Learning . Early in the 1930s, after the 1931 death of her mother, she hired John Russell Pope to expand of the Frick Reference Library into two adjacent townhouses. Pope built abundant shelving and windows, and a medieval-style office for Helen. Time magazine said of
21545-832: The war. It was on that trip that she came to blame the Germans for damaging sites she had visited before the war, an attitude that would strengthen throughout her life. In London Robert Witt (who went on to found the Courtauld Institute of Art ) showed her the Library of Reproductions for the National Gallery, which held 150,000 photographs, spanning six centuries. Entranced with his archiving model, Helen asked whether she could copy it. He told her she could and that he would help. Upon her return to New York began assembling an archive of 13,000 records, beginning with
21700-431: Was a public museum. When the rebuilt library opened in January 1935, it had 200,000 photographs, 18,000 catalogs of art sales, and 45,000 books. The museum itself had a soft opening on December 11, 1935; the preview was noteworthy enough that the names of 700 visitors were published in that day's New York Herald Tribune . The Frick Collection officially opened to the public five days later on December 16. When it opened,
21855-484: Was acquired in 1935. Works by Cimabue, Duccio, della Francesca, and Filippo Lippi entered the museum's collection for the first time between 1924 and 1950. Shortly after the museum opened, it acquired items such as a Renaissance-era panel by della Francesca, a portrait that Boucher painted of his wife, Jacques-Louis David 's painting of a French noblewoman, Monet's Vétheuil in Winter , and a Paul Cézanne landscape. This
22010-632: Was also detailed in Henry Clay Frick: An Intimate Portrait , a biography of Frick written by his great-granddaughter Martha Frick Symington Sanger in 1998. Sanger's subsequent book The Henry Clay Frick House: Architecture-Interiors—Landscapes in the Golden Era , published in 2001, described the Frick House and its collection in detail. In 2011, the Frick and the BNP Paribas Foundation published
22165-510: Was appointed as the museum's fourth director in 1973. The museum announced plans to construct an annex at 5–9 East 70th Street. After the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) expressed concerns over the fact that the expansion would require the demolition of the Widener House at 5 East 70th Street, the museum announced a plan for a "temporary garden" on the 70th Street lots, which
22320-498: Was completed in 1914. The house had been designed with the collection in mind. James Howard Bridge , Frick's personal assistant, was hired as the house's curator in 1914 and worked at the house for fourteen years. Frick, who was known for being especially particular in his tastes, spent an estimated $ 10 million to acquire pieces during his lifetime. Duveen opened four art-purchasing accounts for Frick, including two accounts specifically for art from Morgan's estate. Frick died in 1919 at
22475-416: Was designed by Thomas Hastings in the Beaux-Arts style. The same style is also used for the 1970s reception wing, designed by Harry Van Dyke, John Barrington Bayley, and G. Frederick Poehler. Both structures have a facade of Indiana Limestone . The house has a lawn that is mostly closed to the public. The interiors were designed by a variety of people. The British decorator Charles Allom furnished most of
22630-476: Was equally interested in art history and philanthropy, making a catalogue of her father's art collection as a young woman, a collection which became the Frick Collection in New York. Her interest in the history of art resulted in her establishing the Frick Art Reference Library , which was originally housed in the bowling alley of the Frick family mansion in New York City at 1 East 70th Street. In 1924,
22785-591: Was followed in the 1950s by three Italian Renaissance paintings, David's portrait of Antonio Bartolomeo Bruni , and Jan van Eyck 's Virgin and Child, with Saints and Donor . The collection had only one 17th-century French work until the 1960s, when the museum obtained Claude Lorrain 's painting of the Sermon on the Mount ; the museum also obtained della Francesca's Crucifixion during that decade. The Frick did not acquire anything between c. 1968 and 1991, when
22940-563: Was for example dismissed as director of the Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery) in Berlin in 1933 by the new Nazi authorities for not being politically suitable. The question of the place of the art museum in its community has long been under debate. Some see art museums as fundamentally elitist institutions, while others see them as institutions with the potential for societal education and uplift. John Cotton Dana , an American librarian and museum director, as well as
23095-454: Was founded from Frick's personal art collection, as established in his will. Helen became trustee for the Frick Collection and was heavily involved in early acquisitions. Before Frick's death, by the time she was 25, she had embarked on a project of cataloguing the family's private collections, photographing the art work and collecting provenance data. After his death, she devoted ten years to learning about museum management and preparing to turn
23250-425: Was hired in August 2003 as the Frick's first female director, and the museum was reorganized as a tax-exempt public charity shortly after Poulet became the director. Under Poulet's tenure, she replaced lighting in several galleries and rearranged some of the pieces. She also raised $ 55 million for renovations; the museum's facilities had become dated, and the basement exhibition space was no longer sufficient. Because of
23405-581: Was known as "the American Louvre". University art museums and galleries constitute collections of art developed, owned, and maintained by all kinds of schools, community colleges, colleges, and universities. This phenomenon exists in the West and East, making it a global practice. Although easily overlooked, there are over 700 university art museums in the US alone. This number, compared to other kinds of art museums, makes university art museums perhaps
23560-484: Was later pushed back to April 2025. In September 2024, the Frick appointed Axel Rüger , the head of the Royal Academy of Arts in London, as the museum's director beginning in 2025. The Frick has a collection of old master paintings and furniture housed in 19 galleries of varying size within the former residence. Frick ultimately acquired a variety of European paintings, Renaissance bronzes, French clocks, and
23715-446: Was low on funds; the library had a $ 25 million endowment by 1993, and the Frick began charging "frequent commercial users" of the library that year. Through the 1990s, the Frick banned all children under the age of 10, as well as unaccompanied minors between ages 10 and 15, and the museum also did not have a café. The New York City government passed a law banning public institutions from discriminating by age in 1993, which would have forced
23870-495: Was moved to 945 Madison Avenue, which reopened as the Frick Madison in March 2021. The Frick Madison housed the museum's old masters collection, including 104 paintings, along with sculptures, vases, and clocks. Most of the 1,500-piece collection of artwork was placed in storage at 945 Madison Avenue, and about 300 works were placed on display. At the Frick Madison, the artwork was exhibited against stark dark gray walls, in contrast to
24025-523: Was split between the two cities in 2001, and most of the objects were sent to New York City. After attendance dropped following the September 11 attacks that year, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation provided $ 270,000, in part to fund extended hours on Fridays. Sachs announced in January 2003 that he would resign as the museum's director in eight months, as the board of trustees had not renewed his contract. At
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