Edgar Munhall, The First Curator of The Frick Collection, Retires; Edgar Munhall Organizes a Touring Exhibition of Drawings by Greuze to Open at The Frick Collection in 2002

In the sixty-five year history of The Frick Collection, only one person -- Edgar Munhall -- has held the title of Curator. Since 1965, the internationally-known art historian held the post from which he recently retired, while continuing to organize a touring exhibition of drawings by Jean-Baptiste Greuze to debut at The Frick Collection in the spring of 2002. During his thirty-five year tenure, the Collection published the first multi-volume catalogue of the museum's holdings in all fields. Munhall also participated in the major acquisitions made by institution in the 1960s, paintings by Bruegel, Gentile da Fabriano, Drouais, and Memling. From 1978 on, The Frick Collection began presenting special exhibitions on a regular basis, all organized or secured for the museum by Munhall, shows such as Severo Calzetta Called Severo da Ravenna, Vincennes and Sèvres Porcelain, Jean-Antoine Houdon: Eight Portrait Busts, and French Clocks in North American Collections. There followed his major exhibitions Ingres and the Comtesse d'Haussonville (1985), François-Marius Granet: Watercolors from the Granet at Aix-en-Provence (1988), and The Butterfly and The Bat: Whistler and Montesquiou (1995).