The Frick Collection members' magazine (Spring/Summer 2010)

2010·22.4 MB·English

by  The Frick Collection

Letter [rom the Directar
In May, Dr. Stephen Bury joined the Frick as
the new Andrew W. Mellon Chief Librarian.
In his new role, he will lead the staff of the
Frick Art Reference Library, overseeing its
many programs and initiatives. Before corn-
ing to the Frick, Dr. Bury served as the head
of European and American collections at the British Library, the national library of the
United Kingdom and one ofthe world's greatest research institutions. Dr.Bury has akeen
understanding of digitization, collection sharing, developing technologies, and many
other areas relevant to the Library's evolving role in arapidly changing field.On behalf of
the entire staff,Iwould liketo welcome hirn to the Frick.
I am pleased to announce that our conservation department is the beneficiary of
a $1 million challenge grant recently awarded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
When matched over the next four years with $3 million in contributions from other
donors, the grant willcreate a $4 million endowment for the position of chief conserva-
tor. I am extremely proud of the myriad ways in which this superb department, led by
Joseph Godla, cares for our holdings and the beautiful mansion that houses them. The
endowment will ensure that this vital area of the Collection's stewardship continues in
perpetuity, while also making possible the department's broader contributions within
the conservation community. Itisan exciting prospect, and weare deeply grateful to the
Mellon Foundation for making itpossible.
The Frick's travel program has become an important wayto strengthen relationships
with existing donors while simultaneously reaching out to new friends. In May,Iaccorn-
panied agroup of supporters on aweek-long trip to Sweden for an in-depthexploration
of sorne of the finest surviving examples of the distinctively Swedish neoclassical archi-
tecture and decorative arts promoted byGustav III following his return from Versaillesin
1771.Our itinerary included visitstopalaces,villas,and gardens in and around Stockholm,
aswellasanumber ofprivate homes. Throughout the weekwewerewarmly received and
entertained by collectors, curators, museum directors, and members of Sweden's aristoc-
racy.For information about upcoming trips, please contact Caitlin Davis at 212.547.0697.
Aspart ofour ongoing celebration ofThe Frick Collection's seventy-fifth anniversary,
this summer we will present an installation of original drawings and early photographs
that document the transformation ofthe once-private Frickfamilymansion into apublic
museum. The display,on viewinthe Cabinet through September 5,willfeature aselection
ofelegant elevations executed forJohn RussellPope,the architect responsiblenot only for
the museum's Oval Room, Garden Court, East Gallery,and Music Room, but alsofor the
building that houses the FrickArt Reference Library.
Iwish you an enjoyable summer, and Ihope that your plans will include at least one
visit to The Frick Collection.
Kind regards,
Anne L.Poulet
Director
THE FRICK COLLECTION
MEMBERS' MAGAZINE SPRING/SUMMER 2010
2 TRIBUTE
Remembering Charles A.Ryskamp, Director Emeritus
4 CABINET INSTALLATION
From Mansion to Museum: The Frick Collection
Celebrates Seventy-five Years
6 PERMANENT COLLECTION
Becoming The Frick Collection: Helen ClayFrick and
the Museum's EarlyAcquisitions
16 LIBRARY
Arcade:A Groundbreaking Collaboration
18 COMMUNITY
The Frick Celebrates lts 75thAnniversary:
Director's Circle Dinner, YoungFellowsBall,Spring Party
20 SUMMER CALENDAR
Educational Programming, Concerts, Museum Shop
LEFT
The Seventieth Street Garden
FRONT COVER
Edmund Charles Tarbell (1862-1938), Henry Clay Prick and Daughter Helen (detail),
c.1910,oilon canvas,National Portrait Gallery,Washington, D.C.
BACK COVER
The Portico and FifthAvenue Garden; photograph byMichael Bodycomb
TRIBUTE
Rernernbering Charles A. Ryskarnp
Director Emeritus
I
nMarch Charles A.Ryskamp, The Frick seventeenyears.Previouslyseenasastaidand Aliterary scholar by training and a self-
Collection's fifth director and longtime unchanging institution, the Frick underwent taught connoisseur, Mr. Ryskamp was a
friend, died in Manhattan at the age of a profound evolution under his leadership. passionate art loverand an avidcollector.He
eighty-one. His contributions to the institu- With his guidance, the museum expanded began buying at auction in his early teens,
tion were innumerable, and his tenure as its specialexhibitions program, made several eventually building a substantial collection
director was marked by dynamic leader- important acquisitions, developed new gal- of Old Master and Romantic prints and
ship, a passionate commitment to scholar- lery spaces, and enhanced its publications drawings that would later be the subject of
ship, and successful fundraising efforts. His program. He launched aformal membership exhibitions at the Morgan Library and at
engaging, larger-than-life persona attracted program andreinvigorated theYoungFellows, the Yale Center for British Art. His com-
an ever-widening circle of friends to the both ofwhich havebecome important forces mitment to scholarship and connoisseur-
Frick and set the course for broadening the in the lifeof the museum. Perhaps his most ship was reflected in his expansion of the
museum's outreach. Throughout his tenure, enduring legacy,however, was his successful Frick's special exhibitions program, which
he found creative waysto energize the insti- effort to savethe FrickArt ReferenceLibrary drew large audiences and garnered accolades
tution without losing sight of its history or by mounting the Frick's first capital cam- from the press. Highlights during his tenure
itsunique place in the art world. paign, which raised $34 million to support were François-Marius Granet: Watercolors
Mr. Ryskamp was named director of the Library's programs and to ensure itscon- from the Musée Granet at Aix-en-Provence
The Frick Collection in 1987, after serving tinued contributions to research in the field (1988); The Frick's Other Collection: The rotn
as the director of the Morgan Library for ofart history. Anniversary of the Frick Art Reference Library
(1990); Nicholas Lancret, 1690-1743 (1991);
The Currency ofFame: Portrait Medals of the
Renaissance (1994); John Constable: Drawings,
Oil Sketches, and Paintings from a Private
Collection (1994); and The Butterfly and the
Bat: Whistler and Montesquiou (1995).
Aprevailing misunderstanding about the
Frick is that it is a static collection. As Mr.
Ryskampwasalwaysquicktopoint out,more
than one-third of the works of art on view
were acquired after Mr. Frick's death in 1919.
In keeping with that tradition, Mr. Ryskamp
oversaw a number of notable acquisitions
LEFT
Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721), The Portal of
Valenciennes, 1709-10, oilon canvas.The painting was
acquired byThe FrickCollection in1991under Charles
Ryskarnp's leadership.
OPPOSITE PAGE
Charles A.Ryskamp inhisofficeatThe Frick
Collection, c.1996
2 The Frick Collection
TRIBUTE
he abolished the regulation that required
women researchers to wear skirts in order
to be admitted to the Library's Reading
Room. Hisrepeal ofthe anachronistic rule-
enforced since the Library opened its doors
in 1924-did much to help alter the public's
perception of the Frick as an unchanging,
outmoded institution.
Mr. Ryskamp significantly expanded the
range and reach of the Frick's publications.
He was devoted to finishing the compre-
hensive, nine-volume catalogue of the per-
manent collection (intended primarily for
the use of scholars and collectors), but he
also realized the importance of servicing a
more general readership. He accomplished
during his tenure, among them drawings, English poet William Cowper and the diarist this by supporting the Collection's efforts to
sculptures, and paintings, including The James Boswell. In addition to his teaching publish fully illustrated volumes, including
PortalofValenciennes (opposite page)byJean- duties, he was the curator of English and Paintings from The Frick Collection andArt in
Antoine Watteau, the firstworkbyWatteau to American literature atPrinceton's library. The Frick Collection: Painting, Sculpture, and
enter the Collection. Other significant works His deep knowledge of literature and Decorative Arts.
added were The Arch of Constantine and the art informed every aspect of his leadership After retiring as director in 1997, Mr.
Forum, Rome byJean-Baptiste-Camille Corot; and was nowhere more apparent than in his Ryskamp served the Frick in an advisory
a relief sculpture of the Pietà by Alessandro promotion ofthe FrickArtReferenceLibrary. role for more than a decade. He will be
Algardi;Jean-Étienne Liotard's Trompe l'Oeil, Withfundsraisedduring theLibrary'sendow- remembered for his passionate love of art,
and two pastel drawings by Jean-Baptiste ment campaign, theAndrewW.Mellon Chief for his dedication to ensuring the strength
Greuze, Baptiste Aîné and Madame Baptiste Librarian position was created and several and stability of the institution, and for his
Aîné. These and other acquisitions reflecthis book funds were established. To help guide wisdom, warmth, and marvelous wit.-Anne
refined taste and astute judgment. andsupport itsprograms, hebrought together L. Poulet, Director
Mr. Ryskamp grew up in Michigan in a a group of scholars, dealers, and philanthro-
family of academies. He earned his bach- piststo form the Council ofAssociatesofthe
elor's degree in English at Calvin College in Frick Art Reference Library, which evolved A memorial service for Charles Ryskamp was
Grand Rapids and went on to do graduate into what is now the Visiting Committee. held on May 10 at St. James' Church in New
work at Yale, receiving a master's degree Major advancements were achieved in the York City. Readings and remarks from the
in 1951and a doctorate in 1956.He began areas of technology and digitization, includ- service can befound atfrick.org. Ifyou would
teaching at Princeton University in 1955, ing the creation of FRESCO (Frick Research like ta make a contribution ta the Frick Art
becoming a full professor in 1969.He wrote CatalogOnline), the Frick'sfirstonline public Reference Ltbrary's endowed bookfund estab-
well-received books on eighteenth-century access catalog. Mr. Ryskamp was an advo- lished in Mr. Ryskamp's honor, please contact
British literature and was an expert on the cate of accessibility in aIlareas, and in 1989 Mary Emerson at 212.547.6870.
Members' Magazine Spring/Summer 2010 3
CABINET INSTALLATION
From Mansion to Museum
The Frick Collection Celebrates Seventy-Five Years
June 22through September 5, 2010
O
n December 16, 1935, The Frick transformation of the house. The Board of École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, which nur-
Collection opened its doors to fas- Trustees, which had been hand selected by tured his enthusiasm for classical architec-
cinated crowds. Henry Clay Frick had died Mr. Frick and named in his will,invited two tural styles.Bythe 1930She was nearing the
sixteen years before, leaving his magnifi- renowned architects to submit plans for the end of a successful career, although at the
cent collection and his Fifth Avenue man- new museum: Delano and Aldrich, design- time he was busier than ever with museum
sion for the benefit of the public. What ers of the original Walters Art Gallery in commissions. He worked on two additions
happened in the intervening years is the Baltimore, and JohnRussellPope,whowould for The Metropolitan Museum of Art and
subject of an installation currently on view count among his most famous commissions designed the monumental gallery for mod-
in the Cabinet, From Mansion to Museum: the National Archives in Washington, D.C. ern sculpture at London's TateGallery.
The Frick Collection Celebrates Seventy-Five (1930-35),the gallery for the Elgin Marbles Pope proposed clearing the Frick man-
Years. The selection of architectural draw- at the British Museum in London (1930-39), sion's former courtyard and enclosing it
ings and photographs on display charts the the WestBuilding of the National Gallery of under glass (opposite page, right), thereby
conversion of Mr. Frick's private residence, Art in Washington, D.C. (1935-41),and the creating the Garden Court, complete with
designed by Carrère and Hastings, into one Jefferson Memorial (1936-43),the last three palms,plants, and afountain inthe center.An
ofNewYork'sfinest art institutions. completed posthumously. inspired design,the Frick'sGarden Court pre-
Mf. Frick's widow, Adelaide, and his John RussellPope (below,left) trained at figured Pope's plans for similar courts in the
daughter Helen continued to live in the Columbia University and was subsequently National Gallery ofArt. Pope also advocated
family home at One East 70th Street after awarded a scholarship to the American creating a new entrance on 70th Street by
his death. When Adelaide died in 1931,little Academy in Rome to study the architecture extending the façade over the building's for-
time was wasted in beginning work on the of Italy and Greece. He also studied at the mer carriageway. These ingenious solutions
won Popethe commission inMarch 1932.
Among the first issues Pope addressed in
transforming the Frickhome into amuseum
was visitor access. The mansion's former
PAR LEPT
John RussellPope (1873-1937), c.1916,Collection ofthe
American Academy ofArts and Letters, NewYork
LEFT
Angelo Magnanti (1879-1969), Music Room ofThe
Prick Collection, 1935,graphite, colored pencils,
watercolor, and goldleafon paper, The Frick
Collection/Frick Art Reference Library Archives
OPPOS1TE PAGE, LEFT TO RIGHT
Pope's thirteen-story Library under construction,
April 1934.Tothebuilding's right isThomas Hastings's
original one-story Library,which would soon be
demolished. The FrickCollection/Frick Art Reference
Library Archives
The Garden Court under construction, 1935,The Frick
Collection/Frick Art Reference Library Archives
4 The Frick Collection
CABINET INSTALLATION
porte-cochère was demolished to make way Along with the additions of the Entrance Library were submitted for approval, with
for a public entryway, today known as the Hall, the East Gallery, the Music Room, and construction costs estimated at $1,941,000.
Entrance Hall. The hall's ornate coffered ceil- the Garden Court, Pope designed the classi- Pope's Italianate Library, built of the same
ing is balanced by the more austere pilasters cally inspired building that houses the Frick Indiana limestone as the house, opened to
capped with Ionie capitals and the arched Art Reference Library, located adjacent to the researchers in Ianuary 1935.Bythe end of that
portals of the roorn's limestone walls. Collection on East 71St Street. The Library same year, the new Frick Collection was also
Originally proposed for the second floor had been founded in 1920 by Helen Clay ready. Every detail Pope had designed was
of the mansion, the auditorium (known Frick as a memorial to her father and since employed to make the transition from the
today asthe Music Room) was constructed on 1924had been housed in aone-story building original house to its modern additions har-
the museum's main floor to allow easy access designed by the architect Thomas Hastings. monious. Similar marbles, woods, and stone
from both the Collection and the Library. The rapid expansion of the Library's collec- were used wherever possible, and the decora-
An elegant large-scale elevation drawing exe- tion of art books, journals, and photographs tion of the Garden Court-with its paired
cuted for Pope by the architectural decorator resulted in an urgent need for more space. Ionie columns, shields, and cartouches-
and muralist Angelo Magnanti, one of four By the time Pope submitted a set of revised consciously evoked the classical vocabulary
on view in the Cabinet, depicts the Music plans in August 1933,adjacent properties at used by Hastings in the original house. On
Room's flattened domed ceiling and circular 10and 12East 71StStreet had been purchased December n, 1935, seven hundred invited
skylight (opposite page). Itwas Pope's inten- by the Trustees. Pope then proposed dernol- guests attended an inaugural reception. An
tion that the room serve asboth alecture hall ishing Hastings's original Library, thereby article in the Art News three days later noted
and an art gallery. allowing the museum to expand into both that "It will be difficult for the viewer unfa-
Mr. Frick's former office, just off the the interior court yard and the adjoining plot miliar with the house as it stood three years
West Gallery, was demolished to make way at 6 and 8 East 71st Street, where the origi- ago to realize what tremendous changes have
for the Oval Room. An oval shape was cho- nal Library stood. The new thirteen-story been wrought to make a handsome private
sen because, according to Pope, "It could Library (above, left) would be constructed dwelling into an efficient museum building."
be creatively treated as a thing in itself, on the site of the razed townhouses at 10and The massive rebuilding and new construction
contrasting with the couds rectangle .... - 12East 71StStreet. that had been carried out with such speedand
As such it would have a certain definite In April 1933Pope's final plans for both efficiency surely would have impressed the
elegance of its own." the addition to the Collection and the new founder.-Margaret Jacono,Assistant Curator
Members' Magazine Spring/Summer 2010 5
PERMANENT COLLECTION
Becoming The Frick Collection
Helen Clay Frick and the Museum's Early Acquisitions
D
uring the years between Henry Clay new acquisitions and to shape The Frick Miss Frick composed in her teens and twen-
Frick's death in 1919and the muse- Collection as a public institution. Bydesig- ties to record what she had seen during the
um's opening in 1935,The Frick Collection nating his family members and dose associ- family's numerous trips to European muse-
underwent more substantive changes than ates as Trustees, Frick sought to ensure the ums and private collections. She was her
it would at any other time in its subsequent integrity of his legacy even as he granted father's keycompanion ashe assembled one
seventy-five-year history. The magnificent the Board the liberty to initiate change. The of the most important art collections in the
addition to the original Frick mansion on Board's charter family members induded United States and built a mansion to house
East 70th Street nearly doubled the muse- his wife, Adelaide; his son, Childs; and his it. When her father died in 1919,Miss Frick
um's size. Designed and built between 1931 daughter Helen Clay(below), or"MissFrick" was thirty years old, a woman in her first
and 1935by John Russell Pope, the new asshe was called. Though Childs was chair- maturity, who, though not formally trained,
East Gallery, Oval Rcom, Garden Court, man, Miss Frick acted as a leader. Her sta- had been schooled allher lifein the sophis-
and Lecture Hall echoed the grand scale tus as the principal heir to her father's ticated appreciation, display, and purchasing
of Frick's Picture Gallery (now called the private fortune gave her the power, if not offine art.
WestGallery). Pope's enlarged and expanded the written authority, to assume this role. Just a few months after her father's
FrickArt Reference Library,which had been Unlike -her brother, Miss Frick shared her death, Miss Frick set off to Europe to begin '
founded in 1920 in Prick's honor by his father's passion for art. From her childhood, researching his collection. On that trip she
daughter Helen Clay,rose on East71stStreet they discussed his collecting, and Frick's made her first independent contact with
at the same time as the museum addition paternal attention shaped her life'spurpose. curators, scholars, and dealers-the kind of
was being built. Today, these two institu- The Frick archives contain the meticulously professionals she would cultivate asadvisers
tions express the unityofHenry ClayFrick's annotated and illustrated travel diaries that and friends asshedevoted her lifeand alarge
vision. In enduring architectural terrns, they part ofher substantial inheritance tothe arts.
articulate the goals stated in Frick's will, Inspired by this experience, she created and
in which he bequeathed his art collection financed the FrickArt ReferenceLibrary,one
and residence "for the purpose of establish- of the earliest independent research institu-
ing and maintaining a gallery of art ... and tions in the United States dedicated to pro-
encouraging and developing the study of moting the study of art history. Byfounding
the fine arts ... for the use and benefit of all theLibrarywithin ayearofher father's death,
persons.... " Miss Frick addressed the educational goals
Written asastatement of purpose rather that were integral to his bequest. Toher, the
than as a restrictive set of rules, Frick's will will'smandate of"encouraging and develop-
granted the Board of Trustees the freedom ing the study of the fine arts" applied with
to augment his original collection through equal force to determining the Collection's
acquisitions. Miss Frick's knowledge of art.
history provided the confidence to evalu-
RIGHT ate her father's collection, and the personal
Helen ClayFrick (1888-1984), c.1917,The Frick
and financial trust endowed her by Henry
Collection/Frick Art Reference Library Archives
Clay Frick gave her the means to steer the
OPPOSITE PAGE museum's future course. When the Board of
Fra Filippo Lippi (c.1406-1469), TheAnnunciation,
c.1440, tempera onpoplar panels, The Frick Collection Trustees formed acommittee on paintings in
6 The Prick Collection

PERMANENT COLLECTION
1924,she, rather than its official chairman, on the Mountain (opposite page). In aletter of the seventeenth-century Dutch, Flemish,
Horace Harding, took the lead.Between 1924 to Harding, she stressed the painting's sig- and Spanish schools, as well as eighteenth-
and 1935,Miss Frickwasthe solemember of nificance: "The history of the Duccio panels century Britishexamples.Hisdesiretofeature
the committee recorded ashaving proposed hasno parallel, and ofcourse through allthe splendid paintings in almost allthe rooms of
new purchases. The acquisitions that she agesand byaHthe criticsthey areconsidered his horne on East70th Street alsoled hirn to
made for the Collection before it opened among themost important pictures inltalian purchase eighteenth-century French painted
in 1935responded to its new public role art." In Ianuary of that same year she per- panels such asthe ProgressofLove,the grand
by introducing paintings from periods and suaded the dealer FelixWildenstein to write cycleby Jean-Honoré Fragonard. In general,
traditions different from those that had been to Harding in support of the acquisition of Frick avoided religious subjects. He said he
collected byher father. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres's Comtesse most enjoyed pictures that were "pleasing
MissFrickadvocated her most important d'Haussonville (page 11). Wildenstein's let- to livewith." These tended to be large-scale,
acquisitions for the Collection while she ter also emphasized the work's historical painterly masterpieces in which virtuoso
and her mother, Adelaide, still lived in the importance, and hebacked those claimswith brushwork rather than dramatic subjectspro-
mansion on East 70th Street. This period a fully documented dossier on the picture. vided visual excitement. His daughter, on
ended with her mother's death in 1931.In When they were acquired by the Frick,both the other hand, waskeenly attracted to early
that year, the Trustees appointed The Frick the Duccio and the Ingres were regarded Italian paintings with profound religious
Collection's first director, Mortimer Clapp; as masterpieces whose only direct link themes. Although sheadvocated for them for
the Board took on increased power; and with Henry Clay Frick's original collection their art historical significance,their aesthetic
funding for acquisitions was diverted to was their remarkable quality. Miss Frick's qualities must have appealed to her equally
building the new museum addition. From ambition to expand the boundaries of the and sharply distinguished her taste from her
1924to 1931,when the lines between private Collection was boldo But, even during this father's. EarlyItalian pictures, with their glit-
and institution al collecting were not yet period of her greatest influence, she could tering gold backgrounds, jewel-like colors,
fully drawn, Miss Frick enjoyed the greatest not have enforced such dramatic change and minutely painted details, contributed
liberty to shape the collection her father had without the Board's sanction. In 1927the a novel sense of small-scale, finely crafted
bequeathed to the public. She established Trustee Walter Hines expressed the Board's splendor to the Collection. The aesthetic sen-
early ltalian painting and pre-Impressionist concomitant desire to augment Henry Clay sibility that informed Miss Frick's choices
French painting as the new areas in which Frick's bequest. He supported the acquisi- was articulated by the eminent art historian
the museum principally collected. She was tion of the Comtesse d'Haussonville, writing, Kenneth Clark, who in 1935commented on
attracted to these pictures because they were "Iwould beinsympathy with ... an Ingres of an early Italian painter's works, "it would be
art historically important and because they that character in the Gallery,as my impres- amistake to write of them [only] as if they
broadened the dimensions of her father's sion is that that particular phase of French were historical specimens or units in an aca-
collection. In the summer of 1927,for exam- art is not well represented at present in the dernie scherne:their claim to our attention is
ple,MissFricksuccessfullyadvocated forthe Collection ifrepresented at all," their exquisite beauty." The French pictures
purchase of Duccio's Temptation of Christ Henry Clay Frick had acquired works Miss Frick proposed to the Board also are
of the highest quality that reflected his own notable for their beauty: Ingres's portrait of
personal taste. He collected sculpture and the Comtesse d'Haussonville, for instance, was
OPPOSITE PAGE
DucciodiBuoninsegna (c. 1255-1319), decorative art, but his primary interest was praised in an exhibition catalogue of 1921
TheTemptation ofChristontheMountain, painted
painting. He derived his greatest pleasure for its "beautiful contours" and "marmoreal
between 1308and 1311,tempera on poplar panel,
The FrickCollection from portraits, landscapes, and genresubjects azure opulence." Although Miss Frick was
8 The Prick Collection