Frick Collection
The Frick Collection is an art museum on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. Established in 1935 to preserve the art collection of the industrialist Henry Clay Frick (1849–1919), the museum consists of European paintings from the 14th to the 19th centuries, as well as other works of European fine and decorative art. The museum is located at the Henry Clay Frick House, a Beaux-Arts mansion designed for Henry Clay Frick. The Frick also houses the Frick Art Reference Library, an art history research center established by Frick's daughter Helen Clay Frick in 1920, which contains sales catalogs, books, periodicals, and photographs.
Henry Clay Frick House on 5th Avenue | |
Interactive fullscreen map | |
| Established | December 16, 1935 |
|---|---|
| Location | 945 Madison Avenue (ordinarily 1 East 70th Street) Manhattan, New York City |
| Coordinates | 40°46′16″N 73°58′2″W |
| Type | Art |
| Director | Ian Wardropper |
| Public transit access | Subway: at 68th Street–Hunter College Bus: M1, M2, M3, M4, M66, M72, M98, M101, M102, M103 |
| Website | www |
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. The museum was temporarily relocated to 945 Madison Avenue from 2021 to 2024, during the renovation of the Frick House.
The Frick has about 1,500 pieces in its collection as of 2021. Artists with works in the collection have included Bellini, Fragonard, Goya, Holbein, Rembrandt, Titian, Turner, Velázquez, Vermeer, and Thomas Gainsborough. 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, since 1972, the museum has sometimes hosted small temporary exhibitions on narrowly defined topics, as well as academic symposiums, concerts, classes, and concerts. The Frick Collection typically accommodates up to 300,000 annual visitors and has an endowment fund to support its programming. Commentary of the museum over the years has been largely positive, particularly with relation to the works themselves and their juxtaposition of the Frick House.