As a young man, Henry Clay Frick (1849–1919) surrounded himself with drawings and prints, eventually becoming a leading collector of Old Master art. Among the works he bequeathed as part of The Frick Collection are the two sheets in this installation by Gainsborough and Whistler, two artists whose work he avidly collected. In 1936, one of the most important private collections of Old Master drawings known at the time, that assembled by Henry Oppenheimer (1859–1932), came up for sale. Six of the sheets shown in this installation were purchased at the sale and are among the Frick’s key works on paper, representing artists such as Pisanello, Altdorfer, Rubens, and Goya. These also include sheets of singular artistic interest that have not yet found secure attributions, such as the colorful drawing by an unidentified German (Swabia) artist and a mythical landscape attributed to Titian.
Over the years, the Frick has acquired drawings relating to paintings in the collection—such as Ingres’s study for the portrait Louise de Broglie, Later Comtesse d’Haussonville—and works that enrich the museum’s holdings of a particular artist, such as the landscape by Claude Lorrain. In 2010, a gift from former Frick director Charles Ryskamp introduced new artists to the collection in highly finished works like the plums of Redouté and in more exploratory sheets like Degas’s sketch after a sculptural group. Gifts and promised gifts to the Frick have further enhanced the museum’s collection of works on paper, which complement and relate to the Frick’s celebrated paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts.
This installation is generously funded by The Gilbert & Ildiko Butler Family Foundation, Inc.