Past Exhibition: Henry Clay Frick as a Collector of Drawings

Marking the 150th Anniversary of the birthday of founder Henry Clay Frick (1849–1919), this small exhibition drew attention to a lesser-known aspect of the broad collecting interests of the museum's founder. Ten drawings that Mr. Frick acquired between 1913 and 1916 — including examples in various media by Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn, Thomas Gainsborough, Daniel Gardner, and James McNeill Whistler — were on view in the Cabinet Gallery in the museum's first floor, along with related documents and photographs. Though Mr. Frick purchased sketches since he was a young man, these are the only drawings that he bequeathed to the public as an integral part of his collection, and this presentation offered an unusual opportunity to consider the eye of this great collector with respect to the drawings he studiously added to his magnificent holdings.