#455 House of Beauty: The Story of the Frick Collection

The Bowery Boys: New York City History

We invite you to come with us inside one of America’s most interesting art museums – an institution that is BOTH an art gallery and a historic home.

This is The Frick Collection, located at 1 East 70th Street, within the former Fifth Avenue mansion of Gilded Age mogul Henry Clay Frick, containing many pieces that the steel titan himself purchased, as well as many other incredible works of art from master painters such as Rembrandt, Vermeer, Goya, Turner, and Whistler.

Frick himself had a rather complicated legacy. As a master financier and chairman of Andrew Carnegie's massive steel enterprise, Frick helped create the materials for America's railroads and bridges.

But his intolerance of labor unions led to a bloody confrontation in the summer of 1892, making him, for a time, one of the most hated men in America.

New Yorkers' love for the Frick Collection, however, remains far less complicated. The institution, which has been a museum since 1935, allows visitors to experience the work of the great master painters in an often regal and intimate setting, allowing people to imagine the fanciful life of the Gilded Age.

The Frick Collection reopens this month after an extensive renovation (temporarily relocating the collection to the Breuer Building for a few years) and we've got a sneak preview, featuring Frick curator and art historian Aimee Ng.

Visit the Bowery Boys website for more images and follow the Bowery Boys on Instagram, Threads, Facebook and Bluesky for even more.