Ian Wardropper

At its heart, this story centers on Frick and his daughter Helen Clay Frick, both pivotal figures in the formation of the renowned Frick Collection. The volume delves into the Fricks exposure to and acquisition of some of the finest art of their time. With an exquisite blend of textual narrative and ample imagery showcasing masterpieces and the sumptuous interiors of homes in Pittsburgh and New York, the book offers a captivating narrative of ambition, wealth, and cultural patronage. White Allom & Co. and Elsie de Wolfe worked with Frick on the decoration of his houses and influenced the choice of many furnishings the owner acquired and that formed the backdrop for his paintings. As was commonplace at the time, decorators often collaborated with dealers in creating spaces suitable for the esteemed works of art. Further influential figures who shaped the era s cultural landscape include Frick s occasional business partner Andrew Carnegie and noted art dealers Joseph Duveen in London and Roland Knoedler in New York. Presenting the glittering halls of their homes to the masterpieces adorning the walls of The Frick Collection, this volume is a testament to the enduring allure of art and the power of patronage in shaping cultural institutions.

The form of this extraordinary bronze lamp, the most elaborate of several produced by Riccio (Andrea Briosco), is based on a Roman sandal, and its surface is covered with intricate reliefs modelled with a goldsmith’s refinement and crisp detail. The subjects evoke the populace of classical art and poetry, including a Nereid and Triton, Pan, harpies and innumerable putti, along with goats, musical instruments, shells, masks and garlands. Inspired by the Roman half-boot, the lamp is designed as a bizarre shoe balanced on a pyramidal base, and, as Ian Wardropper discusses in his essay, it would have provided its owner with much pleasure and intellectual stimulation. Early in its history, the lamp is known to have belonged to a series of distinguished Paduan collectors. Paired with Wardropper’s essay is a beautiful poem by James Fenton.

The Old Master paintings and European sculpture and decorative arts at the renowned Frick Collection might be thought to be all but inextricable from the domestic setting of the Gilded Age mansion in which they reside. For a couple of years, however, while the Frick is undergoing renovation, highlights from the collection have been relocated to a radically different, unlikely home: Marcel Breuer's Brutalist building five blocks away, which the architect designed for the Whitney Museum of American Art. The result is a stunning reconstruction and re-presentation of a beloved collection, with the museum's treasures comfortably and elegantly adapting to their temporary modernist abode. This handsome volume documents this altogether singular moment in the Frick's history with stunning photographs by Joseph Coscia Jr. and a reflective foreword by Roxane Gay.

The Frick Collection was founded by Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919), the Pittsburgh coke and steel industrialist, philanthropist and art collector. On his death, he bequeathed his New York residence and remarkable collection of western paintings, sculpture and decorative arts to the public. Designed and built in 1913-14, the mansion is reminiscent of the noble houses of Europe, providing a grand, domestic setting for the art from the Renaissance to the nineteenth century that it contains. The collection includes masterpieces by renowned artists such as Bellini, Constable, Fragonard, Goya, El Greco, Ingres, Rembrandt, Vermeer and Whistler, as well as superb examples of French eighteenth-century furniture, Italian Renaissance bronzes and Limoges enamels.

The first catalog of the Frick's important collection of fifteenth-sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century Limoges enamels, this jewel-like book features major examples of works by some of the leading masters of the art, including the Penicaud brothers, Leonard Limousin, and the Master of the Large Foreheads. Forty-three highlights from the collection are accompanied by a brief commentary and stunning new photography. There is an illustrated essay by director of the Frick, Ian Wardropper, on the artistic significance, stylistic qualities, and craftsmanship of the collection, and a glossary of terms by the Frick's associate conservator Julia Day. AUTHOR: Ian Wardropper is the director of The Frick Collection, New York Julia Day is associate conservator at The Frick Collection, New York SELLING POINTS: . A new volume devoted to The Frick Collection's internationally important collection of French of 15th-, 16th- and early 17th-century enamels. . Representing most of the notable artists and covering many characteristic types and subjects, this New York collection constitutes a comprehensive survey of this medium at a distinguished level of quality 75 colour illustrations