Subseries I: Works Purchased

Subseries I: Works Purchased, 1921-1984, documents the acquisition of artwork by Helen Clay Frick for her personal collection through either purchase or commission. Files may contain lists of works purchased; correspondence with dealers, artists, restorers, or Miss Frick's own staff; invoices; photographs; and printed material. Though these files reflect her interest in collecting works by early Italian and French artists, not all works purchased by Miss Frick are documented here. Additional documentation may be found among the Helen Clay Frick Papers: Series X: Voucher Files (noted in the container list below, when known). Works commissioned are frequently portraits of her late father, along with depictions of three interiors at his New York residence by the artist Walter Gay. Other works commissioned by Helen Clay Frick, notably a painting by Grandma Moses of Westmoreland Farm, her estate in Bedford, N.Y., is not documented here.

Files are arranged alphabetically by the source of the acquisition, whether gallery, artist, or individual. Lists of paintings purchased, as well as correspondence regarding attempts to compile an index of Miss Frick’s paintings, are filed at the beginning of the series.