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Curatorial Blog

  • The Frick's Velázquez in "The Maltese Falcon"

    Christopher Snow Hopkins, Associate Editor, examines the appearance of the Frick’s King Philip IV of Spain by Diego Velázquez in the classic film The Maltese Falcon—a tantalizing cameo that has not been commented upon before.

  • Picturing Paradise: T. S. Eliot, John Milton, and Jean-Honoré Fragonard

    On May 3, 1947, the poet T. S. Eliot delivered a lecture at the Frick on John Milton’s Paradise Lost. In honor of the centenary of the publication of Eliot’s highly influential poem The Waste Land, explore the surprising connections between this famous work, Milton’s Edenic verse, and the lush forests of Fragonard’s Progress of Love.

  • Mapping Provenance: Fragonard's Progress of Love

    What happens to a work of art when it is rejected by its patron? Explore an interactive map to discover how the canvases in Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s Progress of Love series were scorned by a royal mistress, rolled up for twenty years in the Louvre, and more than tripled in number on their way from eighteenth-century France to the fourth floor of Frick Madison.

  • Mapping Provenance: Holbein's "Sir Thomas More"

    The journey of an artwork is rarely a smooth one, and what we know about the ownership history of Holbein’s Sir Thomas More (1527) is notable for its gaps. Explore an interactive map tracing the fragmentary path of this panel from Tudor England to the second floor of Frick Madison.

  • Mapping Provenance: Vermeer's "Mistress and Maid"

    Digital tools allow us to visualize the trajectory of an artwork through time and space. Explore an interactive map tracing the meandering path of Johannes Vermeer’s Mistress and Maid (ca. 1666–67) around the globe, from Vermeer’s studio in Delft in the seventeenth century to the second floor of Frick Madison in 2021.

  • New Discoveries Offer Answers to Mystery of Frick's Vermeer

    The Frick's beloved Mistress and Maid (1666–67) by Johannes Vermeer poses many unanswered questions, notably its seemingly unfinished background. A recent technical study in collaboration with The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Doerner Institut uncovers important new information about the painting, one of only thirty-six works attributed to the artist. 

  • Special Exhibition: "Henry Arnhold’s Meissen Palace: Celebrating a Collector"

    Decorative Arts Curator Charlotte Vignon discusses the current Meissen exhibition, honoring the late Henry H. Arnhold.

  • John Updike and the Frick

    In 1991, Mirabella commissioned John Updike (1932–2009) to write a short article about the Frick. “We would simply like your thoughts as you wander through," wrote Wendy Gimbel, the magazine’s consulting editor. "Obviously, it’s completely up to you.”

  • Special Loan: John Singer Sargent’s "Fishing Boats at Whitby"

    John Witty, Anne L. Poulet Curatorial Fellow, writes about a loan by artist John Singer Sargent, which is currently on display through August. Fishing Boats at Whitby (1884) affords an opportunity to view a work created in a pivotal moment of the young artist’s career.

  • Rediscovering Vermeer’s "Mistress and Maid": The Newest Book in the Frick’s Diptych Series

    Margaret Iacono, Associate Research Curator, writes about Vermeer’s Mistress and Maid, the second installment in the Frick’s Diptych book series.

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