NYC: The Frick Collection

Steven relaxes in the interior garden of the Frick

After an excellent Thai lunch with my colleagues from our New York office (now located in Hell's Kitchen), we ambled through Central Park on our way to tony 5th Avenue, and what my guidebook says is "arguably the best small museum in the nation." This would be the Frick Collection, the home and art collection of Henry Clay Frick.  Frick made his fortune in coke (not the drink or drug, but the key ingredient in steel.) Frick forcibly quelled mining riots in his home town of Pittsburgh, making him quite unpopular.  So he moved to New York, where he promptly bought up a huge piece of property in the best part of town and erected his mansion.

Enemies across the fireplace. 
Sir Thomas More on the left; Thomas Cromwell on the right.

His mansion was designed around his art, which is an astonishing mix of old masterpieces from El Greco, Rembrandt, Bellini, Bronzino, Titian, Vermeer, Van Dyck, Manet, and Hans Holbein, to name a few. They were all pretty compelling - the Rembrandt self portrait, Bellini's St. Francis in the Desert, the Whistler portraits. But I was quite taken with Hans Holbein's portraits of Sir Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell. Cromwell was instrumental in More's execution, when he refused to declare the king the head of the Church of England.  (Cromwell had his comeuppance several years later, when he was also executed.) But now they are paired across a fireplace, sworn enemies not quite directly staring at each other. 

"Elective Affinities" art installation in front of Ingres' 1845 masterpiece. 

Also scattered about were glass cases filled with porcelain tubes and metal bookmarks. Steven thought they were an art installation.  I thought they had just taken some priceless limoge vases off of display and left the stands.  Well, it turns out Steven was right. It was some modern "art" to mix up the masterpieces, and it was called "Elective Affinities." I guess it highlights the sophistication of the permanent pieces.