Collections
Coverage
The Frick Art Reference Library's book and photograph collections relate mainly to paintings, drawings, sculpture, and prints from the fourth to the mid-twentieth centuries by European and American artists. The decorative arts are a secondary area of collecting. Within these subjects the collections focus on the following:
- Attributions
- Iconography
- Auction sales
- Object history
- Catalogues raisonnés
- Patronage
- Collecting
- Provenance
- Collectors
- Technical analysis
- Exhibitions
- Theory
- Historiography
Books and Periodicals
The book collection consists of more than 228,000 titles and 3,300 periodicals. Approximately 6,000 books are acquired annually through purchase and gift by museums, art dealers, private collectors, and authors. Books acquired as gifts or through endowed funds are acknowledged with bookplates and a credit line in the catalogues. For gifts, complete the Gift Form to include with donated items.
For books and periodicals, search the catalogue.
For more information, see the Collection Development Policy.
Auction Catalogues
The auction catalogue collection consists of more than 90,000 volumes. Catalogues from more than 1,000 auction houses in Europe, Australia, and the Americas, ranging in date from the eighteenth century to the present, are represented. Annotated catalogues and price lists, when available, have been acquired to provide additional sales information. The Library continues to add unique and rare catalogues of early sales. It participates in SCIPIO, a database listing auction catalogues and their locations in North America and Europe.
For auction catalogues, search the catalogue.
Photoarchive
The Photoarchive is a study collection of more than one million photographic reproductions of works of art from the fourth to the mid-twentieth century by artists trained in the Western tradition. The Photoarchive was founded first and foremost to facilitate object-oriented research; the documentation it offers traces the essential elements of the biography of the work of art — changes of attribution, ownership, and condition.
For Photoarchive materials, search the catalogue.
To learn more about the Photoarchive, see Research > Photoarchive.
Electronic Resources
The electronic resources collection consists of more than 2,000 subscription databases and e-journals. Access to these databases and e-journals is only available onsite at the Library. Free Internet resources, which are available from any location, can be found through the Open Access Web sites in the Electronic Resources Finder of the catalogue.
For electronic resources, search the Electronic Resources Finder.