Reading List: Copycats | Facsimiles from the Frick Art Research Library

Both the library and art historical fields are interested in original works, as well as in studying from “exact copies” of rare and fragile books, works of art, and objects—known as facsimiles (from the Latin for “make similar,” shortened in the digital age as a “fax”). While facsimiles are infrequently exact replicas, the intention behind creating these reproductions is to offer more accessible versions for study or display, while the originals can be preserved.

Facsimiles have been a staple of the Frick Art Research Library’s collection for decades. An article on the topic was published in the Frick’s fall 2004 Members’ Magazine (available on the Internet Archive), authored by Mark Bresnan, Cataloger and former Head of Bibliographic Records. In the reading list below, you can explore even more facsimiles that have since been added to the library’s collection, highlighting fascinating publications and some of the world’s most renowned artists.

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1. The Culture of the Copy: Striking Likenesses, Unreasonable Facsimiles

By Hillel Schwartz (1996)

This Reading List begins with a meditation on the concept of the copy. Covering identical twins to fax machines, cultural historian Hillel Schwartz provides readers with the opportunity to contemplate society’s dual obsession with the familiar and the uncanny.

2. A Sketchbook by Egon Schiele

Published by Neue Galerie New York (2005)

Twenty-two small-scale notebooks survive from the Austrian Expressionist artist Egon Schiele, who features prominently in the collection of the Neue Galerie New York. This facsimile is reproduced from a notebook in the Serge Sabarsky Collection and is accompanied by a separate text outlining Schiele’s biography. While not an exact replica—the original notebook contained metallic silver endpapers and had an oilcloth cover—this reproduction is close to the original in size and presents sketches for some of the artist’s most famous works.

3. Vincent van Gogh: The Sketchbooks

Published by the Van Gogh Museum, with commentary by Marije Vellekoop and Renske Suijver (2013)

The four sketchbooks reproduced for this publication from the Van Gogh Museum are the only known intact sketchbooks to survive from the Dutch Post-Impressionist’s artistic career. Paired with commentary texts and a series of loose leaves from other notebooks owned by Van Gogh, this incredible set of copies enables researchers and art enthusiasts to study the sketchbooks while the originals are preserved and protected in Amsterdam.

4. The Diary of Frida Kahlo: A New Perspective

Edited by Louise Mereles Gras (2017)

This edition is a reprint from the original facsimile of the famed Mexican artist’s hand-painted and handwritten diary, published some twenty years earlier. Readers can enjoy a reframing by the coeditors Karen Cordero Reiman and Eduardo Casar, who invite us to reconsider Kahlo’s talents in both visual art and the written word. The diary, from the later part of Kahlo’s life, includes evocative written entries paired with vivid, colorful drawings and sketches.

5. Anni Albers: Notebook 1970–1980

Edited by Lucas Zwirner (2017)

The notebook of Anni Albers—the German-born Bauhaus printmaker and textile artist—used for this facsimile was found after the artist’s death and reproduced exactly as it was discovered. It is believed that the notebook originally had covers that had fallen away prior to its discovery. Instead, the facsimile reproduces the pieces of tape that Albers used to hold the pages together. Most of what survives of Albers’s oeuvre are finished works, but this notebook provides deep insights into the working mind of the artist and her active process.

6. Depero Futurista: 1913–1927

Edited by Raffaele Bedarida, Heather P. Ewing, and Steven Heller (2017)

Depero Futurista, also known as the “Bolted Book” for its unique hardware, was conceived and printed as a portfolio for the Italian Futurist artist Fortunato Depero. A work of art in itself, the book was designed with several of Depero’s colleagues and friends and showcased the breadth of his design talent. This beautiful facsimile mimics the original, which was intended to be interacted with by unbolting the pages, rearranging them, or even removing sheets to display.

7. Love Lucian: The Letters of Lucian Freud, 1939–1954

By David Dawson and Martin Gayford (2022)

The twentieth-century British artist Lucian Freud, grandson of the famed founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud, was known for his striking portraits replete with psychological depth. This book is the first published collection of the artist’s correspondence. The letters are reproduced in facsimile, and many are paired with works of Freud’s art in addition to commentary by the book’s editors, giving readers familiar visuals to a new reading of Freud’s life.

8. Turner’s Last Sketchbook

Published by the Yale Center for British Art (2024)

The Yale Center for British Art (YCBA) acquired Joseph Mallord William Turner’s 1845 sketchbook in 1986, then one of the only copies in private hands to remain in its original binding. The sketchbook is still in the YCBA’s collection today and can be enjoyed by a wider public in this facsimile edition. Unlike some of the other facsimiles in this list, Turner’s Last Sketchbook reproduces the full sketchbook in two dimensions on its pages, reminding readers that this is a faithful copy but not an exact replica of the original object.

All photos by Joseph Coscia Jr., The Frick Collection