The Frick Collection

This informative guide to the most iconic works in The Frick Collection’s holdingsis published on the occasion of the fall 2024 reopening of the museum following itsrenovation.From paintings and sculpture to decorative arts, this publication encapsulates the rangeand depth of the collection. Organized chronologically and by geographic school, theguide is designed to offer a sense of the connections between, and diversity among,contemporaneous artistic production across different fields, genres, and media in earlymodernEurope.When American industrialist Henry Clay Frick (1849–1919) built his New York homeon the Upper East Side of Manhattan, he intended for it to one day become a public artmuseum for the “use and benefit of all persons whomsoever.” After his death and that ofhis wife, Adelaide, in 1931, the house was transformed into a museum and was opened tothe public in December 1935. The Fricks’ daughter Helen Clay Frick (1888–1984), alongwith a board of trustees, was instrumental in the continuance of her father’s legacy andthe care of his bequest. Over the years, the collection grew and the number of visitorsincreased, requiring renovation campaigns in the 1970s and 2020s to accommodatethese changes, the latest giving access to the public for the first time to a suite ofrooms on the second floor. Originally the Frick family’s private quarters, these roomsare now galleries for works of art, providing space for more objects to be on view. Thescope of the collection, which spans from about 1300 to 1900, was never intended to beencyclopedic and reflects the taste of the founder, who chose to acquire works for hishome that were “pleasing to live with.”