This article is part of the FT Globetrotter’s New York Guide
I’ll always have a guilty appreciation for robber barons like Henry Clay Frick. They offset their cruelty and greed with gifts that we continue to enjoy. Frick had better taste than his capitalist rivals, all of whom consulted dealer Joseph Duveen and scoured Europe for art, picking up British portraits and Old Masters. , it was he who left behind a collection that rivaled the Metropolitan Museum of Art in terms of quality. With a wide range. When the Fifth Avenue mansion closed for renovations in 2020, I was at a loss to see all these masterpieces that had taken refuge in the disproportionately modern Breuer Building at 75th Street and Madison. It was exciting and even revelatory to watch. Fortunately, the original flick will reopen in April 2025, expanded, reconfigured, and restored, and I’ll see my personal roster of friends again in the intimate, homely setting where they belong. You can do that.
“St. Francis in the Desert” by Giovanni Bellini (c. 1475 – c. 1480)
My favorite paintings in a collection full of wonders are depictions of bliss so intense that they leave traces. Frances emerges from her cozy study and her mere presence makes the morning a wonderful one. You can feel the sweet clarity of the air and the warmth of the sun on the saint’s face. He barely notices the stigmata. The theatrical appeal of this panel makes it easy to overlook details such as a shepherd and his flock patrolling the riverbank, a cautious heron balancing on a rock, and a rabbit peeking out of its burrow. This religious work seems to me to be almost carnal in that it depicts worldly pleasures. living hall
By Hans Holbein I, Thomas More (1527) and Thomas Cromwell (date unknown)
Holbein portrayed the powerful Thomas both vying for Henry VIII’s favor and falling victim to his fatal whims. This is a privilege that binds them to posterity as much as it did in life. More’s face competes for attention with his clothes, but his pensive expression, dark eyes, and giant nose ultimately trump his loud red velvet sleeves. Cromwell’s profile reveals Kissingerian ruthlessness. There is a skeptical frown between the eyebrows, and multiple jaws disappear into the fur collar. Holbein gives us a portrait of quiet, terrifying power by placing the man behind a table covered in velvet and studded with the custodians’ luxurious fixtures. living hall
“The Polish Rider” by Rembrandt van Rijn (c. 1655)
I was a teenager when I first fell in love with this handsome boy with flowing hair who ran through a misty landscape. And his charm remains undiminished. Poet Frank O’Hara felt that way more than 60 years ago when he wrote “Drinking a Coke with You.” Anyway, it’s on the flick/Thank goodness you haven’t gone yet, so we can go together for the first time. ” These lines evoke a sensual shock that is reproducible when you look at that picture again and again. west gallery
The Countess of d’Aussonville (1845) by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
A keen realist with diamond-honed lines, Ingres knew when to abandon literalism, and in this portrait he did justice to the model’s aura rather than her appearance. “I was destined to confuse, charm, tempt and ultimately bring suffering to all those who sought happiness from me,” the pale countess wrote. Clad in sparkling blue silk that hugs her eyes, with translucent skin and rubbery limbs (and, improbably, the wrong finger in the mirror), she shines as a paragon of graceful youth. . Not trusting Ingres to do a proper job, she also left instructions for the body to be embalmed in a way that both the physical and artistic body could withstand. 2nd floor walnut room
“A Black and Gold Arrangement: Robert de Montesquieu-Count de Fezensac” (1891-92) by James Abbott MacNeill Whistler
Whistler’s Dark Lord draws not only from this pitch-black masterpiece, but also from three different literary characters: Proust’s decadent indulgence Baron Charlus, Huysmans’s debauched protagonist Jean de Essent from Le Bourg, and Wilde’s provided material for the evil narcissist Dorian Gray). In Whistler’s vision, the famous dandy appears to merge with the darkness, merging with it and disappearing at the same time. With his fine charcoal suit, spiky mustache, and moon-pale forehead, this charming count exhibits a sense of ruthless self-possession that is almost sociopathic. oval room
“The Lady with the Bird Organ” by Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin (c. 1751)
This woman stands out among the richly dressed tycoons, moguls, and heirs whose portraits appear in The Flick. That’s because she’s sitting by the window, a nobody, or rather, a nobody. It is a scene of comfortable confinement, a cozy drawing room and a subject in a voluminous dress, a corner of a room and a bird in a cage. The two are connected by a serinet, an organ used to teach the canaries new songs. Humans and birds share a similar fate with confined spaces: they can sing and be admired, but they cannot roam. Boucher waiting room, 2nd floor
John Constable’s Study of Clouds (c. 1822)
Frick owned not one but two canvases of Constable’s genius. “Salisbury Cathedral seen from the Bishop’s Garden” and “The White Horse.” But my eye is drawn to a pair of much smaller oil paintings on paper that the museum acquired in 2000. Constable created these sketches when he went out to ‘the sky’, training his eye, hand and mind on the constant movement of the atmosphere. He aims to seamlessly blend emotion and fact, and the resulting research, once improvisatory and meticulous, scientific and expressive, transforms nature’s fleeting phenomena into permanent ones. It became a record. 2nd floor small hallway
“The Pond” by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1868-70)
A woman and child hang out in the shallow waters of a rural pool. Behind them cows drink in the calm waters, and beyond that a cozy cottage sits comfortably on the slope. Scenes like Spirea are filled with a dense, almost liquid atmosphere, with a breeze rustling through the air, dotted with twinkling points of light. Frick was drawn to Corot’s elegiac later works, which moved away from naturalism and towards half-illuminated fantasy. He conjured these landscapes from memory rather than painting them outdoors, and his term for them, “souvenirs,” hints at their wistfulness. west gallery
Julia, Lady Peel (1827) Sir Thomas Lawrence
Her red feathered hat beckons from afar. When viewed up close, the easily brushed details are attractive and mesmerizing. This portrait lacks depth. It’s all painted on a shiny surface, where Lawrence spreads paint like butter on toast. Let your eyes glide over the sparkling jewels from Marmor’s hands, through the satin of her sleeves, through the plum cloak lined with fluffy white fur, and finally at the hint of landscape at the edge of the frame. If you zoom in on the place, you might mistake it for a 20th century abstraction. Julia’s husband was the famous politician Sir Robert Peel, and just by sitting in front of this portrait, Julia contributed to the glory of her country, and it elevated her to the pantheon of painterly beauty. library
“Bullfight” by Edouard Manet (1864)
Manet recalled a tragic afternoon at the Plaza de Toros when he had never been to Spain. Critics sneered at his fantasy, ignoring its creamy impasto and focusing on its off-kilter proportions. “A wooden bullfighter was killed by a rat with horns,” one young man said jokingly. The artist responded by slicing the canvas in two. The lower section became “Dead Bullfighters” (now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington). Flick has acquired a top that is a strange composition but a fascinating amalgamation of elements. The arena’s wooden fence separates the muddy spectators from three brightly costumed figures and a barely visible piece of cattle. When Manet eventually traveled to Spain and attended a corrida, he found it to be “one of the most beautiful, strangest, and most frightening sights that one can behold.” But he already knew it because he saw it in his heart. Impressionist room, 2nd floor
The Frick, 1 East 70th Street, New York, NY 10021, reopening in April 2025
Which of these 10 paintings from The Frick do you like best and why? Let us know in the comments below. Follow FT Globetrotter (@FTGlobetrotter) on Instagram.
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