2001

In 1999, Winthrop Kellogg Edey bequeathed to The Frick Collection a remarkable collection of twenty-five clocks, fourteen watches, and an extensive reference library relating to the history of time measurement. Over nearly five decades, Edey had purchased a large number of timepieces, many of which he later exchanged or sold to upgrade with artifacts of greater significance. This continual refinement enabled him to assemble a small but exceptionally fine collection, illustrating both the stylistic and the technical development of clocks and watches from about 1500 to 1830.

The Greentree Foundation generously lent to The Frick Collection for a period of one year six master paintings from the former collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney. The group included Corot's Cottage and Mill by a Torrent (Morvan or Auvergne), 1831; Manet's Racecourse at the Bois de Boulogne, 1872; Degas' Before the Race, 1882-88, and Landscape with Mounted Horsemen, c. 1892; Picasso's Boy with a Pipe, 1905; and Redon's Flowers in a Green Vase, c. 1910.

Andrea Mantegna (1431–1506) painted this small panel during the height of the Italian Renaissance, using detailed, emotion-filled images to depict the moment when Christ appears to the souls in Limbo. The original work was created for Marchese Lodovico Gonzaga in June of 1468. Because it was so highly regarded, several other versions were made, including this smaller one, which was probably done for Ferdinando Carlo, the last Duke of Mantua, around 1470–75. Lent through the generosity of the Barbara Piasecka Johnson Collection, it was on view in the Enamels Room.

In summer 2001, visitors enjoyed two eighteenth-century tapestries woven by the Brussels workshop of Peter van den Hecke (c. 1752). On display in the Music Room, these rare hangings are important for their state of preservation, the significance of their design, their royal provenance, and the evidence regarding the identity of their maker and manufacture. They depict scenes from Cervantes' novel Don Quixote de la Mancha, which proved to be an important literary source in the fields of fine and decorative arts for over two hundred years.

Master Drawings from the Smith College Museum of Art opened at The Frick Collection on June 19, 2001. The exhibition, organized by Ann H. Sievers, Associate Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs at the Smith College Museum of Art, featured 68 drawings — all examples of superior draftsmanship — and allowed visitors to view drawings ranging in time from Old Master pieces to the most recent work, Mark Tobey's Echo of 1954.

The Frick Collection's St. Jerome and Purification of the Temple comprised the core of this special exhibition, which was shown in the Oval Room. Together with five loan paintings — all replicas or versions of the two Frick canvases — these works revealed different aspects of the master's recycling of his own compositions. Although El Greco was a highly original painter, he frequently made replicas or related versions of his works, at a time when few if any other major artists did so.

In the spring of 2001, visitors had the opportunity to view at close range two recently restored candelabra dating to the reign of Louis XVI. These extraordinary examples of French craftsmanship and design incorporate white marble, lapis lazuli, patinated bronze, and gilt bronze and brass. While it is difficult to attribute such multifaceted works to one creator, these pieces may fall within the oeuvre of Pierre-Philippe Thomire (1751-1843), who executed several similarly inventive works.

In honor of the spring 2001 exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art,Vermeer and the Delft School, The Frick Collection installed its three paintings by the artist in a special manner. For the first time in over fifty years, the works by Johannes Vermeer (1632-75) Mistress and Maid, Officer and Laughing Girl, and Girl Interrupted at her Music were hung together in one gallery at the Collection, the South Hall, offering visitors an opportunity to consider these treasures side by side.

A survey of five centuries of draftsmanship by Italian, Flemish, Dutch, British, French, and German artists, this exhibition brought together seventy-three works on paper culled from the National Gallery of Scotland's premier collection of some fourteen thousand sheets. Spanning the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries, The Draftsman's Art included examples by masters such as Leonardo, Raphael, Rubens, Boucher, Blake, Ingres, and Seurat. Guest Curator Michael Clarke's selection featured drawings little known in the United States, providing a rare viewing opportunity.

In another of its ongoing series of single-picture exhibitions, The Frick Collection presented Raeburn's celebrated skating minister on loan from the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh. Completed by Sir Henry Raeburn (1756-1823) around 1784, this image of the Rev. Robert Walker — minister of the Canongate Kirk and an avid member of the Skating Society — is one of the Gallery's most beloved works.