New Portico Gallery Opens with Selections of Meissen Porcelain from Henry H. Arnhold's Promised Gift and Two Sculptures by Houdon
December 13, 2011, through January 6, 2013
The Arnhold Collection
In 2008 The Frick Collection first exhibited the Arnhold collection
of Meissen porcelain, beginning a collaboration that has led to the
construction of this Portico Gallery. This inaugural installation echoes
the 2008 exhibition The Arnhold Collection of Meissen Porcelain,
1710–50, with four wall cases highlighting the areas of the Arnhold
family's collecting: red stoneware, chinoiserie-style porcelain, Japanese
and Japanese-inspired wares, and Meissen porcelain painted by
independent decorators known as Hausmaler. The exhibition celebrates
the generous promised gift by the Henry Arnhold Foundation that will
make the Arnhold collection a permanent part of The Frick Collection.
The gift will add substantially to the Frick's ceramic holdings and will
further engage both the public and scholars with this fascinating period
of early European porcelain production.
Henry Arnhold followed in his parents' footsteps as a patron of the arts
and an avid collector of Meissen porcelain. The Arnhold collection,
one of the greatest private holdings of early Meissen porcelain, was
established in Dresden between 1926 and 1935 by Lisa (1890–1972)
and Heinrich (1885–1935) Arnhold with a focus on vases and wares
of the period from about 1710 to 1745, when Meissen was considered
the porcelain of kings and the city led the porcelain industry in Europe.
The Arnhold collection came to the United States with Lisa Arnhold
and her family at the start of World War II, and highlights from it were
first exhibited in the M. H. de Young Museum in San Francisco in the
1940s and again in 1965. Mr. Arnhold has extended the size and scope
of the collection, sometimes following his parents' tastes, sometimes
departing from them with the acquisition of Meissen with underglaze
blue decoration, figures and groups, and mounted objects. |
