Helen Clay Frick Papers, Series V: Art Files

Helen Clay Frick Papers, Series V: Art Files, 1900-1991 and undated, contains correspondence, invoices, inventories, catalogs, photographs, research materials, and printed matter documenting the acquisition and administration of artwork in Helen Clay Frick's personal collection and her research interests in various areas of art history. It also gives information about works of art she declined to purchase either for herself or on behalf of The Frick Collection. This series is arranged in seven subseries, as detailed below.

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.

Subseries II: Works Not Purchased, 1922-1971 and undated, consists largely of chronological correspondence files containing letters offering works of art for purchase by either Helen Clay Frick or The Frick Collection, all of which were declined. The range of artists offered includes Sargent, Rembrandt, Whistler, Piero della Francesca, Vermeer, Houdon, Greuze, Guardi, and Giorgione, among many others. Dealers include Alice B. Creelman, R. Langton Douglas, Edward Hutton, and Basil Dighton. Three additional files document offers for a crucifix in the style of Duccio, a Donatello marble, and a double portrait by Edmund Tarbell of Helen Clay Frick with her father that was rejected by Henry Clay Frick when it was painted circa 1910.

Subseries III: Clayton and Eagle Rock Collections, 1911-1991 and undated, documents the administration and dissemination of works inherited by Helen Clay Frick from her father's collections at the family's Pittsburgh residence (Clayton) and Massachusetts estate (Eagle Rock). These files chiefly consist of inventories and catalogs of paintings, sculpture, enamels, and porcelains, but also include correspondence regarding insurance, relocation of objects, general matters, and the sale of one painting: Seiners by Rockwell Kent.

Subseries IV: Correspondence, 1920-1978 and undated, contains letters to and/or from art historians, dealers, galleries, conservators, and others regarding matters connected either with Helen Clay Frick's collection, or with her interest in art history. Notable correspondents include Alice Creelman, Durlacher Bros., Duveen Bros., M. Knoedler & Co., Harold Woodbury Parsons, F. Mason Perkins, and Wildenstein & Co. Most items are filed alphabetically by correspondent, however, a handful of files are topical in nature (e.g. insurance on paintings, furniture and rugs, and porcelains and bronzes). Additional correspondence on art-related matters can be found in the Helen Clay Frick Papers, Series XVI: Alphabetical File.

Subseries V: Loans and Exhibitions, 1926-1983, contains files regarding the loan of various works for both short and long-term exhibition. Objects loaned were predominantly paintings. In the case of the loan to Harvard University's Fogg Museum of Art, however, Helen Clay Frick also sent furniture, rugs, bronzes, and porcelains. Coinciding with an extensive renovation at Eagle Rock, these objects were on loan for a period of several years. Other large long-term loans were made to the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. This subseries also contains files for several loan requests refused by Helen Clay Frick.

Subseries VI: Research, 1900-1975 and undated, contains notebooks, notes, card files, photographs, academic papers, and printed material connected with the collections of Helen Clay Frick and her father, as well as other areas of research. Topics of particular interest to Helen Clay Frick were Italian artists, the French sculptor Jean Antoine Houdon, and objects represented in her father's collection, especially paintings, Chinese porcelains, and sculpture. This series also includes notes on historic homes and collections, particularly the notes on Virginia from 1922, which were probably used in conjunction with first photo campaign of the Frick Art Reference Library. Similar notebooks can also be found in the Helen Clay Frick Papers, Series XI: Travel.

Subseries VII: Volumes, 1901-1936 and undated, contains bound research compiled by Helen Clay Frick, as well as nine volumes of the Italian periodical Rassegna d'Arte (1901-1912 and 1928). Volumes compiled by Helen Clay Frick contain handwritten notes and illustrations on the history of architecture and painting. The bulk of these are devoted to the various schools of Italian painting.