Mauritshuis Royal Picture Gallery, The Hague
5 February through 10 May 2015
Over 30 masterpieces from the celebrated Frick Collection were seen outside New York for the first time as part of a special exhibition at the Mauritshuis Royal Picture Gallery in The Hague in 2015.
A Country House in New York: Highlights from The Frick Collection was the first major exhibition to be displayed in the new wing of the Mauritshuis following the opening exhibition of the museum in 2014. The exhibition gave visitors to the Mauritshuis a fascinating insight into the history of The Frick Collection and its founder, wealthy American steel magnate Henry Clay Frick (1849—1919). The works selected for the exhibition are masterpieces from the 13th to 19th centuries, which include not only paintings, but also drawings, sculpture and decorative arts, reflecting the outstanding quality and diversity of The Frick Collection. They perfectly complemented the Mauritshuis’s own collection which focuses on Dutch art of the Golden Age.
The Frick only lends works of art acquired after the death of its founder Henry Clay Frick. A Country House in New York: Highlights from The Frick Collection included significant works of art by such renowned artists as Cimabue, Van Eyck, Memling, Liotard, Reynolds and Gainsborough.
John Constable’s spectacular The White Horse,
a key work in the oeuvre of the artist,
and his spontaneous studies of clouds are highlights of the exhibition.
French Classical painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres is represented with a masterpiece that has become an icon of The Frick Collection:
the enchanting portrait of the Comtesse d’Haussonville.
There are few or no works by artists such as Ingres, Cimabue, Van Eyck and Liotard on display in Dutch museum collections, making these loans of significant interest for the Dutch public.
Jan van Eyck and workshop, Virgin and Child, with Saints and Donor, c.1441-43, panel, 18 5/8 x 24 1/8 inches, The Frick Collection, New York; photo: Michael Bodycomb
Hans Memling (ca. 1430/40-1494), Portrait of a Man, ca. 1470
The Frick Collection, New York (photo: Michael Bodycomb)
