In celebration of the publication of the ninth and final volume of the series of comprehensive catalogues of The Frick Collection, a selection of works on paper were placed on view in the Cabinet. Although Henry Clay Frick was interested primarily in paintings, he did periodically acquire drawings and prints throughout his collecting career. Following his death in 1919, the museum has continued to purchase, on occasion, important examples of graphic art; its collection of works on paper, though small, is one of high quality. Among the Frick's drawings are exceptional works from the fifteenth through the nineteenth century by artists such as Antonio Pisanello, Claude Lorrain, Thomas Gainsborough, Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. The print collection, dating from the sixteenth through the nineteenth century, includes outstanding examples by Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt van Rijn, Charles Meryon, and James McNeill Whistler. Owing to the fragile nature of these works, they are seldom on view to the public.
Although the exhibition focused on works on paper, Volume IX catalogues not only the museum's entire collection of drawings and prints but also later acquisitions of paintings, sculpture, and examples of decorative art that have not been published previously. Volumes I through IX are available in the Museum Shop.
Francisco de Goya, The Anglers, 1812−20, brush and brown wash on paper, The Frick Collection.