The Frick Collection is opening its doors to the press today for a viewing of its startling installation of Old Master works in the Marcel Breuer building on Madison Avenue. Formerly the home of the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Met Breuer, the 1966 building exudes a rough Brutalist aesthetic that throws the Frick’s august paintings and decorative objects into unusual relief. It is a jolting contrast from how they appeared at Henry Clay Frick’s sumptuous Gilded Age mansion, which is closed for at least two years as it undergoes a renovation and expansion. “This is a different Frick than you have ever known,” Ian Wardropper, the museum’s director, said at a virtual press session today.
Here are some highlights of the installation, which opens to the public on 18 March.
• Hear more about the new Frick display in the Breuer building with Xavier Salomon, the deputy director and chief curator of the Frick, on our podcast
This grand gallery of Italian Renaissance paintings in the Frick Madison includes work by Veronese (back right wall) as well as Titian. Centrally located is a bronze by Francesco da Sangallo, placed atop a replica of its original base. To the left are works by later Venetian masters Guardi, Tiepolo, and Carriera
Works in bronze, including statuettes, reliefs, and portrait medals, and shown together in one gallery at the Frick Madison
Work by Veronese and other Old Masters as they appeared in the West Gallery, a purpose-built picture gallery to house and display Henry Clay Frick's art collection on East 70th Street
Rembrandt’s Nicolaes Ruts (1631) is compared with the artist's much later Self-Portrait (1658) in a second-floor gallery at the Frick Madison
Works by British landscape rivals Turner (right) and Constable (left) are shown side by side in the Frick Madison
Portrait of a Woman (1635) by Frans Hals as seen in the West Gallery of the Frick mansion between J.M.W. Turner's Cologne: The Arrival of a Packet-Boat: Evening (1826) and Jacob van Ruisdael's Landscape with a Footbridge (1652)
Three of the Frick’s eight portraits by Van Dyck, as shown at the Frick Madison
Vermeer’s Mistress and Maid (left) and Officer and Laughing Girl as shown at the Frick Madison
Portraits by Hans Holbein the Younger—Sir Thomas More (left) (1527) and Thomas Cromwell (right) (around 1532–33), face off at the Frick Madison
El Greco’s St. Jerome (around 1590–1600), hangs above the fireplace mantel in the Living Hall of the Frick mansion, flanked by Hans Holbein’s portraits of Sir Thomas More, left, and Thomas Cromwell, right
This gallery at the Frick Madison features all nine Spanish paintings acquired by Henry Clay Frick. On the right wall are works by Murillo and El Greco. On the back wall is the collection's portrait of King Philip IV of Spain by Velázquez
19th-century French Neoclassical works are shown in this gallery at Frick Madison, among them painted portraits by Ingres and David, and an expressive terracotta bust by Chinard in the center
At Henry Clay Frick's mansion, Ingres's portrait of Comtesse d'Haussonville hanging in the North Hall, and Bellini's St Francis in the Desert in the Living Hall
Room 21: There are more paintings by Gainsborough at the Frick Collection than any other New York City museum. The wall of this Frick Madison gallery features five of the artist’s works, with his scene The Mall in St. James’s Park at centre
Portraits by Thomas Gainsborough—Mrs. Peter William Baker (1781) and The Hon. Frances Duncombe (1777)—and George Romney—Henrietta, Countess of Warwick, and Her Children (1787–89)—hang in the Dining Room at the Frick Collection's East 70th Street location
Four grand panels of Fragonard’s series The Progress of Love are shown together at the Frick Madison in a gallery illuminated by one of Marcel Breuer’s trapezoidal windows. This view shows two of the 1771–72 paintings, with two visible in the next gallery
Later works by Fragonard are shown in a gallery that completes the cycle. At right, a group of seldom-shown panels of Hollyhocks join the work Reverie (around 1790–91), left, at Frick Madison
The Frick Collection's Fragonard Room at its usual home
The Frick Collection houses more works by American-born James McNeill Whistler than any other artist. This view shows three of four of his full-length portraits on display at the Frick Madison
The third-floor galleries at the Frick Madison begin with three rare marble examples of Italian Renaissance portrait sculpture. By Laurana and Verrocchio, they date to the 1470s. The next room features early Italian religious paintings, including works by Paolo Veneziano and Piero della Francesca
The Frick Collection is also home to striking works of British portraiture, including paintings by Reynolds (at left and right) and Hogarth (centre)
Two rare and infrequently displayed 17th-century Indian Mughal carpets hang on gallery walls at the Frick Madison
A dramatic display of European and Asian porcelain (from around 1500 to around 1900) is featured in this Frick Madison room, reflecting deep cultural interaction in the history of the medium. Remarkable examples of 18th-century French furniture from the Frick Collection are also included
In this gallery featuring the French decorative arts, the most important clock at the Frick (at left) is shown with two pieces of royal furniture by Riesener commissioned for Marie-Antoinette. Porcelain from the Sèvres manufactory is displayed above her commode