The Frick Collection after its 5 year, $220 million renovation

Mistress and Maid by Johannes Vermeer c. 1667 in the Frick Collection. 

Has it really been five years since I was last at the Frick prior to my visit on June 22? I guess it must have been. We didn't return as soon as it reopened this spring but waited until the Vermeer "Love Letters" exhibit opened. I'll start with that as I catalogue the renovated museum's hits and misses.

Top Highlight: Vermeer

The special Vermeer exhibit is ranks at the top of my list for the hits of the Frick's reopening. It  brought in two Vermeer paintings to complement the Mistress and Maid shown above. One is Woman Writing a Letter with Her Maid, ca. 1670–72, from the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin.

The other is The Love Letter, ca. 1669–70 from the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

I urge you to get over to the Frick before the exhibit closes on August 31 because it's quite an experience seeing these three paintings together in-person. The Love Letter one reminds me of Vermeer's The Guitar Player  c 1672 and a variation of it on display in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. My favorite of these three is Woman Writing a Letter with Her Maid.*  

Access to the Second Floor

Thanks to the renovation, visitors now have access to the second floor, which showcases some art in what had been bedrooms and also houses the museum's gift shop and cafe. This is generally a hit, though I would have liked the bedrooms to retain their original furnishings or their reproductions to reflect what the rooms were like when a family lived in the mansion. There are only a few dressers with no information about them. Speaking of that ...

Information on the Exhibits

The information on the art on view -- both on the placards on the walls and through the app that replicates information to be found on the Frick's site -- is extremely uneven. You'll get more than you want to know about Jean-Honoré Fragonard's "The Progress of Love," but find out absolutely nothing about some of the clocks and scores of other pieces. It is rather frustrating for those of us who would like more information. It's a serious missed opportunity for the museum not to have improved that aspect of its exhibit while investing so much money and time in the renovation. 

Ticketing and Timing: Hits and Misses

Tickets for adults cost $30. Years ago, the Frick generously offered "pay what you wish" times on Sundays. Unfortunately, it shifted that offer to the far less convenient time of  Wednesday afternoons 1:30-5:30 PM. 

If that doesn't work for you, check your local library for membership passes that will allow entry for 2, saving you $60. If you have a card at a New York City library, inquire about  Culture Pass availability. You won't only save money but time because those membership passes allow you to enter any time of day and  skip the line of people waiting to get their timed tickets.  

Allow me my rant on timed tickets, which were  popularized during the reopening of museums after the pandemic lockdowns. The more enlightened museums like the Met** dropped that major inconvenience aa couple of years ago. It only requires timed entry -- though not additional ticket purchases -- to the special exhibits. That the Frick is still stuck in 2021 even after the 2025 reopening is a major miss, but it pales beside another one. 

Really Rare Restrooms

Who designs a renovation for a building with a legal capacity of 1350 with  just three sets of bathrooms? The architect of the Frick renovation does. 

Yes, only half a dozen people would be able to use the restrooms with just two (one for each gender, though heaven knows why when they are all single-occupancy)  on the second floor and in two basement levels. I cannot comment on what these looked like inside because I never got beyond a locked door or a extended line leading up to it. 

I'm shocked that no architect consulted on this project pointed out a standard ratio based on the projected number of visitors, especially in light of the addition of the cafe. Seriously, who does that, especially on a $220 million budget?

Filling in the Sketch

To end on a positive note about what the Frick does well, I want to comment on the Cabinet Gallery. It's one of the smallest rooms on the first floor that is filled with sketches. The highlight of that for me was seeing a sketch for one of the Frick's celebrated paintings: Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres' portrait of Louise, Princesse de Broglie, Later the Comtesse d'Haussonville. 

*Notice that the love letters theme assumes literate women. I didn't think that much about that aspect until I saw the The Book of Esther in the Age of Rembrandt special exhibit at The Jewish Museum. (You can catch it through August 10, 2025. Check your library for passes, or plan your visit for the Museums on Us Day to save the $15 per person admission.) A number of the paintings show Esther involved in writing, reflecting the unusually  high  literacy rate of the Dutch at the time. You may also notice that the tables featured in most of these paintings are covered by rugs just like the table  in Woman Writing a Letter with Her Maid. 

**Speaking of the Met, it also has a temporary exhibit worth catching this summer: Sargent and Paris. Catch that one before it closes on August 3rd. It definitely worth the trip. The Met never imposes an extra charge for its special exhibits. Residents of NY and the metro area always get to pay what they wish, and for other visitors, it's possible to get in free on the first weekend of the month through the Museums on Us program from Bank of America.  Also the Met is home to five Vermeer paintings, so it will make a complement to the three you can see in the Frick now. One of them, Young Woman with a Lute,  features the same yellow jacket. 

Related: 

Vermeer in Philadelphia

Jane Austen at 250

Jane Austen at the Morgan

Vermeer in Philadelphia

Seeing a Vermeer painting may warrant a trip from New York to the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA),  but I'm not certain that is what I saw there  

This was not a special exhibit with a masterpiece on loan like the one at the Frick I described 10 years ago. This was just a painting that had  sustained damage and was not displayed until an expert suggested it is a genuine Vermeer rather than a copy of The Guitar Player, c. 1672  that lives in Kenwood House in England.

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The Guitar Player, c. 1672 Johannes Vermeer 

If you zoom in on the image on the Google Arts & Culture, you would see some cracks in the paint, which is to be expected after over three centuries. But that painting is still in fairly good shape, especially when you contrast it with the version that was thrown into storage and incurred a very visible rip on the lower right hand corner. That's the state of the painting you can currently see in-person in Gallery 364 of the PMA's main building. 

The Guitar Player (Lady with a Guitar) (detail), c.1670-1720, by Possibly Johannes Vermeer or a copyist (Dutch (active Delft), 1632–1675), Cat. 497

As you can see, this is essentially the same picture twice with just a variation in the sitter's hairstyle. That is why it was assumed to be a copy of the Vermeer an not treated with the greatest of care. But that changed just this year.

As the tour guide explained, and the museum site records:

 In March 2023, researcher Arie Wallert reasoned that the Philadelphia painting could be by Vermeer himself, altered at some time in its past by aggressive cleaning attempts that removed much of the artist’s uppermost finishing layers of paint....

Old restorations were removed from the painting 50 years ago, revealing exactly what remains of the original paint. The painting is on view in this unrestored condition, giving all a rare opportunity to see what researchers have been looking at for the past five decades in their search for clues of style, technique, or materials that might yet tell us—Vermeer’s own work, or another artist’s?

Wallert found that the paint samples of the paintings in question were consistent with the paints available to and used by Vermeer, including his favored shades of yellow and the very costly ultramarine blue. He also established that the canvas is from the right time period, though it doesn't quite match the ones  in the other Vermeer paintings.  

It adds up to a Schrödinger's Vermeer situation. It may be worth 9 figures, or it may only hold the value of a good copy that's about 350 years old. It has yet to be determined. For now, the museum currently lists the painting as a Vermeer in the signs on the main floor, though the paper maps do not yet include it among its "must-see" items.

If you do make the trip into Philadelphia to draw your own conclusion on the Vermeer questions, there is also a lot more to see in this museum. Crowds also line up outside to take selfies with a statue of Rocky, the boxer who made the steps of the museum famous in this iconic film scene:

Oddly enough, though, the statue doesn't show him in the basic sweats but in his boxing shorts. Capitalizing further on the Rocky association, Philadelphia plans a Rocky Run on November 11. 

You you may want to steer clear of the museum that day. It's challenging enough to park nearby as it is, though I recommend you look around the numbered streets in the mid 20s perpendicular to Green street. .

The museum charge $30 for admission and  grants a mere $2 discount for seniors over 65. Students with valid ID pay $14, and kids under 18 get in free. To save on the admission cost, you can plan to go one of the "pay what you wish occasions." That's every Friday after 5 PM (the museum stays open until 8:45 on Fridays) and the first Sunday of each month.

The site still is showing timed tickets that you can purchase in advance, but  you really can just show up when you want and buy the ticket on the spot.

Related:

Jane Austen at the Morgan

French vs. American Style: the du Pont Estates in Delaware

Nemours dining room, photo by Charles Brown

                

                 Delaware is home to two famous du Pont estates that reflect the distinctive aesthetics of their owners. In 1907, Alfred I du Pont built an 18th-century style chateau on 3,000 acres hat he named Nemours for the French town of his great-great grandfather. Winterthur, on the other hand, evolved from a 12 room house buit in 1841 to a 175-room mansion that Henry Francis du Pont intended to house his collection of American antiques and to serve as museum and resource for American style.

On the American side

This rivalry between French and American style is one of the  themes of the exhibit currently on view at the Winterthur Museum: Jacqueline Kennedy and H. F. du Pont: From Winterthur to the White House. When Jacquelin Kennedy undertook a project to restore the White House to the glory it lacked at the time, she enlisted the help of the H.F. du Pont. He steered her toward American style over French -- the style she had personally preferred

 

He also steered her toward authenticity even at greater experience. The strongest example of that was his advice to spend $12,500 to obtain the actual Zuber wallpaper for the White House Reception Room rather than to commission a copy for a fraction of the cost. Incidentally, the man who sold the committee the wallpaper --Peter Hill -- had purchased it for a mere $50, though he had to take it down himself  before the house in Maryland that had it on the walls was demolished.

Winterthur, photo by Ariella Brown

View of the back of the house from the Reflecting Pool area, photo by Ariella Brown

H.F. du Pont had a great passion for American artifacts, history, and gardening. The Winterthur Museum and Garden (there's also a library, though it was closed to the public when I visited) are all a testament to that. For the cost of general admission of $22, you'd gain a two-day pass that entitles you to museum admission (not in the house itself) with the option for a tour, a house tour (where you only get to see about a dozen out of the 175 rooms) and garden tour that covers a small part of the 60 acres of gardens plus as much walking around the 1,000 acres of the estate as you're up for. 

Most of the ceilings at Winterthur have a perforated coverto allow electricity to get through. I have to say that I find it really detracts from the effect of the rooms so carefully set up to reflect a set period.

      Half of one of the symmetrical rooms in Winterthur, photo by Ariella Brown

                                View on the estate, photo by Ariella Brown

Spring seems to be the ideal season to come to see the millions (yes, that many) of bulbs come into bloom that change over the colors you'll see no less than three time in the space of a month, according to our guide. Another garden highlight are the thousands of azalea bushes that would be at their peak in April and May. But no matter what time of year you visit, you can delight in the Enchanted Woods See photos below:

   Child's playhouse with thatched roof, furnished table, benches, chairs, and a working fireplace in the Enchanted Woods  

You can also indulge your whimsical side at Winterthur by stopping in to see  the Campbell Collection of Soup Tureens right next to the museum building. The designs to range form the subline to the ridiculous with some that would look like what you might find in your grandmother's collection, while others would make you wonder: "What were they thinking?"

                                  3 soup tureens from the Campbell Collection, photo by Ariella Brown

                             What else would you serve turtle soup in but a silver tureen shaped like a turtle?

                 .
On the French side

While Nemours doesn't boast a museum or the particular delights of a child's garden, the architecture of the house and the view of the splendidly appointed rooms, plus the exquisite layout of the formal gardens adorned by fountains that all seemed to work (unlike the ones in Kykuit) and a collection of gnomes beyond the standard bearded men, scattered around the place are  well-worth the cost of $20 for the day-pass  for access to the house and grounds. Both estates offer shuttles to carry you from one point of interest to another if you tire of walking. 

Nemours Estate: all Nemours photos here by Charles Brown

  

Nemour droom

                                                   Nemours conservatory

Four things you get to see in Nemours that are  not on public view at Winterthur: bedrooms, a bathroom made for the house, a laundry building, and a garage with beautiful  vintage cars..

                                         

                                       Laundry required using a washboard in large sinks

As you may have observed, I was able to post a lot of pictures here. That's because there are absolutely no restrictions on photography in these du Pont estates -- only a bar on using flash indoors. In contrast, Kykuit prohibits any photography inside -- even in the garage that houses the cars. It also does not allow visitors to roam the grounds freely at their own pace. Consequently, I would say that the Delaware estates are both a better value and friendlier as attractions. Just they are quite a distance to travel from New York. 

Related: 
Art, Architecture, or Parkland: Contrasting Estates of the Rockefellers
Restoring a garden and some history in Yonkers
A grand vision of Victorian architecture and engineering
Have desk, will travel travel

Art, Architecture, or Parkland: Contrasting Estates of the Rockefellers

Sculpture-topped fountain at Kykuit. Photo by Ariella Brown (all rights reserved)

If you decide to explore some of  New York's historic Hudson Valley, you can see a study in contrasts between two Rockefeller estates: William Rockefeller's Rockwood Hall in Tarrytown and John D. Rockefeller's Kykuit in Sleepy Hollow. 

Now you see it, now you don't

The first obvious difference is that you can drive right over to the site of  Rockwood Hall and walk about it freely, as it is now a public public park. You cannot just drop in to see Kykuit. You have to first stop at the the Viistor Center at Phillipsburg Manor to meet for the tour there -- even if you have purchased your ticket online to save $2 . (You cannot tour the Phillipsburg Manor freely either, so if you want to work out that tour, budget both the time and the cost to do so on your visit). 

(Below is a picture of the grist mill at Phillipsburg Manor that I took in August 2022. I was on the tour years of the property several years ago. I'd say it's worth doing once but not necessarily doing twice.)

Aside from the cost of free vs. $20, $40, or $60 (depending on whether you go for 90 minutes, 2.25 hours or a full 3 hour tour) to see Kykuit, the most striking difference between the two is that in one you get to see a house, and in the other the house is gone. Below is all that remains of the 204 room Gilded Age tour de force built in "castellated Elizabethan style," which was demolished in 1941.  Alas, no Escape to the Chateau style revival is possible. (The fact that the estate was designed to be self-sustaining with all the food grown and/or bred on it to serve the family, servants and guests reminded me of the Strawbridges'  ambition to use the Chateau's property in the same way).  

These structures pictured above  were not part of the building itself but a front area for tennis, etc. It does give off quite an Ozymandias vibe when you know the history of the house. In fact, the hiking tour that is offered for this -- a mere $4.02  expenditure with EventBrite's fee -- offers visitors a sticker with a picture of the house that is conspicuously absent shown below:

                    

William Rockefeller was not the first one to scope out that site for an impressive mansion. There was already one there when purchased the property. But as he expanded his holding to a full thousand acres and hired Frederick Law Olmsted -- famous for the design of both Central Park and Prospect Park -- , to design the landscape, he also expanded the house. It's not clear if he tore down the existing structure or added to it. You can read more about that and see some (not color)  photographs of the interior decorated in the "more is more" style that defined the Gilded Age here:

parks.ny.gov/documents/parks/RockefellerRockwoodHallHistory

Crazy Rich Baptists

While William went for the over-the-top look of a castle, his brother John settled for a mere 40 rooms in his mansion that didn't even boast a ballroom. The largest room in the house is the music room, which was used for playing the organ and piano but not for dancing. Nor was alcohol served under John's domain because he was devout Baptist. However, that level of observance didn't last too long, and his son met his wife at a dance (according to the account of our tour guide) and also invested in wine glasses. on display in the butler's pantry when he gained control of the house. 

If you zoom in on the picture below, you can notice a great deal of detail on the front of the house -- from the eagle on top to the carvings below -- including representation of the arts and agriculture around the center windows. but aside from the art of the architecture, the house is home to many pieces of art --placed in various rooms, set out in the art gallery below the first floor, and scattered throughout the extensive and meticulously manicured grounds.  

 

The Oceanus fountain holds a prominent place in the front of the property. It is a copy of the fountain that Giovanni Bologna designed for the Pitti Palace at the Boboli Gardens in Florence.

There is a great deal of detail on the architectural structures that warrants noting -- like a slogan appearing on top of a gate, or the year building began  on top of one and the year it concluded on another. Below is a close -up of some of the ironwork that shows lifelike grape appearing among the vines:

There are many fountains around the grounds, but not all of them were on, as you can see from what's pictured above. Even the fountain that was the parallel one to the one in front of the front entrance shown below wasn't on. 

Kykuit: The gate shown here notes the year of construction. the one opposite it notes the year of completion.

Below is one of the many outdoor sculptures. The one below is by  Karl Bitter.

            This is the back part of the house with a wide porch that offers wonderful views of the Hudson

The picture above is one I took on a tour several years ago, though it was also in August. We saw more of the grounds on that tour and I took this picture of the view, sculpture and space that also frames garden views. 

On this visit, we got to see the inside of the garage with a vast collection of carriages for horses and a section of the automobiles that were used by the succeeding generations of people who lived in the house, ranging from a Ford Model S (earlier than T) to cars made in the 60s. Many of them still retained inspection stickers form 1981-1984, indicating they were still used about a decade before the house was turned over to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1992. 

Use it or lose it

And that is really why this house remained standing. It was occupied and used as a home for several generations and then turned over to a trust to be preserved a historic home that also functions as an museum. In contrast, the vast castle that William built was not kept as a family home, and so it became a white elephant of a property turned to use as a country club but not a residence. When that use failed, the lack of maintenance caused the crumbling property to become a potential hazard, which is what prompted the 20th Century heir of Rock Hall to demolish it and supposedly throw its parts into the Hudson. 

Related: 

French vs. American Style: the du Pont Estates in Delaware 

Restoring a garden and some history in Yonkers

A grand vision of Victorian architecture and engineering 

Have desk, will travel travel

How many times did Edison Fail in attempting to invent the light bulb?

Marketing in uncommon times

Yesterday I wrote an article for a client about marketing messages during a time of crisis. (see https://www.remarkety.com/communicating-with-customers-during-crisis).  Due to space limitations, I couldn't offer all the examples I've come across of the wrong and the right way to approach it in that article, so here are some of them.

Brands that get it wrong
1. Clothing: Charles Tyrwhitt's  attempt to tie its standard shirt promotion to the crisis that leads to more people working at home: 

"Wherever you may be working, proper clothing keeps you feeling the part. Upgrade your work-from-home game, with an extraordinary offer shipped directly to your door. Your video meetings will thank you."

Nobody who works from home dresses up, though many of us do make a point of getting dressed and not lounging about in our pajamas. I happened to have a video meeting yesterday, and as the other two were also working from home, they were wearing sweatshirts. That's what people wear at home, and it's considered acceptable in this context. Perhaps if the video were for a job interview, that would be different. (see https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/coronavirus-remote-interview-ariella-brown-phd/)

2. Finance: Oakmark's Funds relentless emails to apprise me that they are still open for business when I haven't owned one of their funds for well over a year. This is not the time to bombard every single person on your email list with your messaging. All the brands we actually are interacting is with still are doing the same, so our inboxes already are overstuffed.


3. Culture: Newark Museum's preset messaging that is rather tone-deaf to the reality we are living in now. It sent me an email with the subject line "Give the Gift of Art and Technology" with this picture promoting its MakerSPACE, space. Normally, it's a great idea, to have "trained STEM educators and teaching artists lead hands-on, interactive experiences that combine art, science, and technology." But this is not happening now when the museum is likely closed altogether and certainly would not be promoting anything "hands-on" during the coronavirus run, especially for the older population.

I know this campaign was planned ahead of the outbreak, but you do have to pull inappropriate messaging when situations warrant it.

But some marketers do get it, as you can see from the contrasting examples below.

Brand that get it right

1. Clothing (2 brands here) 

Old Navy, which messages me at least once a day, tailored its subject lines to fit the situation. One of them was  "Staying home? Stay cozy in fleece." Another was "Need a little mood lift? ☀️ 50% off these spring musts + 3 ways to stay super cozy right now." When staying home, people are not likely to dress to impress, but they still need clothes and possibly may need different ones from what they wear to the office, or they may want something new and inexpensive as a kind of treat. So this kind of messaging fits well.

Another one in this category that is aware of the necessity to get in the mindset of the audience is ModCloth. The email I just got from that brand is this:

2. Health:  I believe I only ordered from Health Warehouse once, though I am very impressed with its communication:

Over-The-Counter Product Notice This notice is ONLY in regards to OVER-THE-COUNTER products. These are products that do not require a prescription. For information on Prescription Medications and Services, please see our Coronavirus Notice here: https://try.healthwarehouse.com/coronavirus/ HealthWarehouse.com will continue to sell all products at our standard pricing. We are also practicing fair share allocation, limiting bulk ordering as a countermeasure to reduce shortages and help prevent individuals from price gouging on other websites like Amazon or eBay. We will stay true to our mission of honest and transparent pharmacy practices, and in that vein wanted to provide an update for our OTC customers. The Bad News: Due to the national surge in health related ordering, we are likely to experience delays and temporary shortages on some Over-The-Counter products at both the Supplier and Manufacturer level. Also, due to such rapid spikes in order volume, it is possible that some customers may order a product before we are able to list it as Out of Stock. In the event a product is ordered that cannot be filled within our normal 1-3 business day processing time, we will notify you as soon as possible by email. The Good News: Due to our business model and relationships with suppliers we are generally able to restock product within 24 hours. That means that while we may "sell out" of a product in current inventory, we are likely to have it back in stock and shipped within another 24 hours. So while we are likely to experience slower than normal OTC processing times, it is unlikely that we will truly sell out of most products unless Manufacturers and Suppliers themselves run out of inventory. We will continue to keep you up to date during these times, and will stay dedicated to Honest and Transparent business practices.Contact Us If you do still have questions you can contact us at: Email: Support@HealthWarehouse.com The message here is clear, admits to bad news, and also offers its own kind of reassurance without falling into the trite cliches we see in so many of these emails. Plus it ends with a way to be in contact for questions. The only thing it's missing is a phone number, as I do like to talk to people when I have pressing questions rather than wait on emails. 3. Culture: The MoMA sent as message with this subject line:"The Museum from Home: From early cinema to a portable hug." We are thinking of you in this strange moment, as routines pause and we adjust to living in a new way for the health of communities across the world. More than ever, art can offer inspiration, beauty, and solace. While the Museum is closed, we’ll be sharing a selection of content highlights each week. We’d love to hear what you would be interested in seeing, so please send suggestions to magazine@moma.org. We also invite you to stay connected online, with resources including our digital publication Magazine; our YouTube channel; free online courses on Coursera; a podcast collaboration with the BBC, The Way I See It; and a trove of audio with insight from artists, curators, and others. Thank you for being part of the MoMA community, and we look forward to staying connected. How to See the First Movies Film curator Dave Kehr narrates our guide to looking at stunning works of early cinema. → Watch Bryan Stevenson on Jacob Lawrence The human rights lawyer discusses the legacy of the Great Migration in Lawrence’s iconic Migration Series. → Watch Poetry Project: Ada Limón on Frida Kahlo Ada Limón’s poem explores the theme of connectedness in Frida Kahlo’s Fulang-Chang and I. → Read 15 Minutes: “A Portable Embrace” Conor Bourgal has created a soundtrack to keep you company while looking at a painting, or when you’re alone in a city. → Listen

Unlike the message from Newark, this email is not reaching out to ask for a donation but simply to connect at a time when people cannot visit the museum in person. At the risk of revealing how very geeky I am, I'll share the fact that I discussed this communication with my husband, and we both agreed it was a very nice message to get.