Frick Collection
The Frick Collection is an art museum on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was established in 1935 to preserve the 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 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 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 reopened 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, 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 the Frick House.
History
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 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 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.
Creation
Establishment of Frick Collection Inc.
Frick died in 1919 at 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 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, 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 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.
Opening of museum
After Adelaide Frick's death in October 1931, the trustees were finally allowed to open 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 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 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, 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 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.
1930s to 1960s
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 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 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 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 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 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, after the board finally voted to accept Rockefeller's gift. Assistant director Harry D. M. Grier replaced Biebel, becoming 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 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, 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.