The Frick Legacy: Taste, Ambition and a Collector’s Monument

Sir Gerald Kelly, Portrait of Mr. Frick in the West Gallery, 1925, oil on canvas. 48 x 40 in. © Frick Art & Historical Center, 2009

Art collecting in the modern age has always been both a personal pursuit and a mirror of social ambition—whether in Pittsburgh, Paris or London. Few figures embody this duality more vividly than Henry Clay Frick, whose collection transformed from modest beginnings in Pennsylvania into one of the world’s most admired ensembles.

Today, the Frick Collection stands as both a monument to his vision and a living demonstration of taste, rivalry and legacy, offering lessons for collectors everywhere. These themes are examined in Ian Wardropper’s book The Fricks Collect: An American Family and the Evolution of Taste in the Gilded Age, which became the starting point during our recent conversation on Reading the Art World.

Read the full piece in Observer here.