Who is this Frick?

Man, it would seem, is as far from art.

Henry Clay Frick is a Pennsylvania-based transport industrialist. He is also the founder of the Carnegie Steel Company and the HC Frick & Company, an investor in the Pennsylvania Railways and the owner of a huge amount of commercial real estate.

In some details, he nevertheless justified the sound of his surname (although it is spelled as "Frick", not "Freak"). According to contemporaries, Frick was a disgusting man: a tough, and sometimes brutal leader, a family tyrant, an unprincipled friend. In history, he entrenched as "America's most hated man." And such titles, and even so for a long time, are not given to everyone.

Like any supervillain careerist, Frick still had a weakness. And she was very noble — classical European art. In order for his favorite paintings to be in harmony with the space around, he even built a neoclassical mansion in Manhattan, not far from Central Park.

It was in the new residence that most of the collected collection was stored and stored.

Frick took his time and did not buy up everything he saw. He acquired the works of famous artists as his wealth grew, but he began quite early. Therefore, some of the paintings still remained in his homeland, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Some family Frick even shared with the campus of the local university. But the main array of the collection is presented in the Manhattan industrialist's house.

Pearls of the Frick Collection

Frick loved strict classics. This concerned everything — doing business, organizing his home and, of course, buying up paintings. The basis is made up of masters who may and not so much are massively popular, uniquely recognized by schools in Italy, Germany and France.

The Frick Collection presents works by the Italian Quartoento era: Pietro Perrugino, Sandro Botticelli, Piero della Francesca, Masaccio, the Bellini family, Michelangelo Buanarotti and other artists. All of them are united by one thing — the desire for realism and strict canonicity. In the future, they will become the basis of academic painting. And the craving for such work only complements the portrait of Frick himself.

Together with Italians, other classics are present in the collection: Hans Holbein, Rembrandt, Jan Vermeer, El Greco, Titian, Peter Brueghel, Francois Boucher, Diego Velazquez. Basically, these are classic realistic portraits or scenes in the Rococo style.

Why precisely the Frick Collection?

It is a reasonable question, because the classics of European portraiture are also full in other museums, larger and more structured. Everything is simple.

• Firstly, this is perhaps the largest collection of works so important in the history of world art in America.
• Secondly, there is no “tourist madness” in the Frick Collection. This museum is not as famous and popular as the conditional Louvre. So, it’s much easier to walk quietly and really enjoy the painting, so squeeze through the crowds and try to make out at least something.
• Thirdly, because Freak was a control freak here too: many works hang in the exact order and in the places where the owner placed them. That is, getting into this museum, you literally get into the head of a person who carefully collected masterpieces all his life, who received sincere pleasure from them and sought to share beauty with the world.
• And fourthly, because of the variety. This is not just a gallery for you — in addition to paintings, there are also several sculptures, original French furniture of the 18th century, and porcelain and glass works.

In general, if you are in New York, you can’t pass by. This is the place where the soul really rests. Already a hard worker and an industrialist throughout the United States knew a lot about culturally beneficial relaxation.

And if you have not yet been to the capital of the world, American Butler will help with all the formalities and leisure activities.