art collecting
West Gallery Rembrandt
During Frick’s lifetime, the Rembrandt paintings were hung together on the north wall of the West Gallery.
West Gallery, Frick Residence, 1927
West Gallery Vermeer
The three Vermeer paintings were hung in close proximity to one another along the same wall of the West Gallery.
Unfortunately, there were no photographs taken of the Frick Residence before Frick's death in 1919; however, these photographs taken in 1927 reflect the Frick residence as it was during his lifetime.
West Gallery, Frick Residence, 1927
Vermeer Invoice
M. Knoedler & Co. invoice for Vermeer’s Officer and Laughing Girl purchased by Henry Clay Frick on November 13, 1911, for $225,000. Bill Book No. 1, Henry Clay Frick Art Collection Files
Vermeer Girl Interrupted
Frick’s purchase of Portrait of a Young Artist ushered in a new phase of his collecting, which had previously focused on French academic and Barbizon painters. Just two years later, in 1901, Frick acquired Vermeer’s Girl Interrupted at Her Music
Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675), Girl Interrupted at Her Music, c. 1658-59
Rembrandt Portrait Young Artist
The Frick Collection contains exceptional Dutch works of its own, including three Vermeers and three Rembrandts, along with works by Hals, Cuyp, Hobbema, and Wouwerman. Henry Clay Frick's acquisition of Old Master paintings began with Rembrandt and ended with Vermeer. Frick acquired the Portrait of a Young Artist (now attributed to a follower of Rembrandt) through Arthur Tooth & Sons in 1899.
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (Follower of) (1606 - 1669), Portrait of a Young Artist, 1650s
Dordrecht: Sunrise
Almost forty years later, Helen Clay Frick, Mr. Frick's daughter, visited the Netherlands again, this time compiling a detailed scrapbook describing her trip. On September 15, 1932, she passed through Dordrecht, the subject of a Cuyp painting in her father's collection.
Aelbert Cuyp (1620-1691), Dordrecht: Sunrise, c. 1650
Travel Scrapbook 3
Several works depicted in Miss Frick's scrapbook are currently on view at The Frick Collection, including Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring, Fabritius' The Goldfinch, seen here, and Steen's "As the Old Sing, So Pipe the Young," seen on the preceding page.
Travel scrapbook from a trip to France and the Netherlands, 1932. Helen Clay Frick Papers, Series: Travel
