1991

Past Exhibition: The Frick’s Other Collection

Black and white photograph of the Frick Art Reference Library Reading Room taken in 1935 showing empty communal tables with lamps and chairs
The Frick’s Other Collection: The 70th Anniversary of The Frick Art Reference Library
December 11, 1990 to March 24, 1991

The creation, growth, and present-day role of The Frick Art Reference Library was the focus of a special exhibition marking the seventieth anniversary of the founding of the institution. The first section of the exhibition surveyed the Library's history from its foundation to the present. Photographs, architectural plans, records, maps, newspaper clippings, and artifacts documented the Library's growth from its early acquisition of materials to the time of the construction of the first building (1924) and the current location (1935) at 10 East 71st Street.

Past Exhibition: Nicolas Lancret, 1690–1743

Painting of lively feasting scene with figures around a table and dogs in the foreground.
Nicolas Lancret, 1690–1743
November 19, 1991 to January 12, 1992

The first exhibition devoted entirely to the work of this long-neglected French Rococo master who during his lifetime was one of Europe’s most celebrated artists. The prolific Lancret was a favorite of Louis XV and Frederick the Great as well as of international nobility, but during the nineteenth century he fell under the shadow of his mentor Antoine Watteau. Lancret in fact had a singular and brilliant talent of his own, as this exhibition demonstrated.

Past Exhibition: From Pontormo to Seurat

Sketch of the back view of a reclining woman
From Pontormo to Seurat: Drawings Recently Acquired by The Art Institute of Chicago
April 23, 1991 to July 7, 1991

An exibition of some sixty drawings recently acquired by the Art Institute of Chicago. The drawings included a wide range of works from many countries and periods, including superb examples by such well-known masters as Annibale Carracci, Hubert Robert, Gainsborough, Gericault, Monet, Redon, and Renoir. Among them were also two exceptionally fine landscapes by Claude Lorrain, a brooding, dark self-portrait by Joseph Wright of Derby, and an early Delacroix figure study which might almost be taken for one by Degas.