The Frick Collection

Today, we visited the Frick Collection, a house that spans over a block. It was built in 1913-14 and is named after former residence and art collector Henry Clay Frick. To call this house a “collection,” or an “exhibition,” or even a “museum” is not to do it justice. It also seems unfair to name it after a man named Henry Frick, even if this was his house. It’s more like a mini Versailles than anything. Marble sculptures, paintings that stretch to the ceilings and depict a narrow variety of Biblical, Classical, Romantic, and Royal scenes. The collection is estimated to be worth $15 million and lives in a house like a square, marble donut with an indoor courtyard at the center. It's all reminiscent of a more lavish, decorative time. Think 18^th Century France meets pre-WWI Downton Abbey meets modern day 5^th Ave. Three elderly women are sitting on a bench below a Turner painting of a dock in Cologne. The sky is blue, the river is yellow, and the boats and buildings are the color of a sunset. The women speak French, and they chew on hard candies and check Facebook on their iPhones, like they’re in three different decades at once.