Frick Collection

The Frick Collection occupies a mansion that industrialist Henry Clay Frick built with the specific intention of becoming a public museum. Construction of the Indiana limestone residence at 70th Street and Fifth Avenue began in 1912, designed by Thomas Hastings at a cost of nearly five million dollars. Frick lived there only until his death in 1919, and the collection opened to the public in 1935 following his widow's passing. The intimate scale and domestic setting distinguish the Frick from larger encyclopedic museums.

Frick's collection focuses on Old Masters and 19th-century paintings, with exceptional strength in Vermeer. Three of Vermeer's rare paintings hang here: Officer and Laughing Girl, Girl Interrupted at Her Music, and Mistress and Maid. El Greco's dramatic portraits, Rembrandt's introspective works, and Piero della Francesca's rare panels represent Renaissance mastery. Cimabue's Flagellation of Christ dates from the 13th century. The museum reopened in its revitalized Fifth Avenue home in April 2025 after temporary relocation during renovation.