A Panorama of Pittsburgh
at the Frick through 10/5
Learn about Pittsburgh's past by viewing more than 130 printed views of the city.
Meissonier masterpiece
now on view at the Frick
1806, Jena is on view at the Frick through May 31, 2009.
This Sunday is
RADical Day at the Frick
Visit the Frick on 10/5 for a full day of activities and fun!
Rob Rogers discusses
political cartooning on 10/12
The Post-Gazette's award-winning editorial cartoonist will discuss his experiences covering the 2008 presidential campaign and conventions.
Music for Exhibitions
begins new season 11/18
Join Katherine Soroka and Chatham Baroque for an evening of memorable music.
View photos from the 2008 H. C. Frick Horseless Carriage Tour
Twenty-six teams of drivers made it a day of fun.
Sign up for the
Frick e-newsletter
Each month, receive the latest information about exhibitions; programs for adults, families, children, and teachers; events; specials at The Café and the Museum Shop; and more.
at the Frick through 10/5
Learn about Pittsburgh's past by viewing more than 130 printed views of the city.
Meissonier masterpiece
now on view at the Frick
1806, Jena is on view at the Frick through May 31, 2009.
This Sunday is
RADical Day at the Frick
Visit the Frick on 10/5 for a full day of activities and fun!
Rob Rogers discusses
political cartooning on 10/12
The Post-Gazette's award-winning editorial cartoonist will discuss his experiences covering the 2008 presidential campaign and conventions.
Music for Exhibitions
begins new season 11/18
Join Katherine Soroka and Chatham Baroque for an evening of memorable music.
View photos from the 2008 H. C. Frick Horseless Carriage Tour
Twenty-six teams of drivers made it a day of fun.
Sign up for the
Frick e-newsletter
Each month, receive the latest information about exhibitions; programs for adults, families, children, and teachers; events; specials at The Café and the Museum Shop; and more.
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September 23, 2005 - December 31, 2005 |
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Spanning 300 years of artistic development, To Observe and Imagine: British Drawings and Watercolors from the Morgan Library, 1600–1900, opens at The Frick Art Museum on September 23, 2005. This exhibition is the Morgan Library’s first traveling survey of its extensive holdings of British works on paper. Exquisite draftsmanship, picturesque views, fascinating faces, and unsurpassed watercolor technique highlight this selection of 102 master drawings and watercolors from the Morgan’s important collection of British art, originally assembled by one of Henry Clay Frick’s business associates and peers, Pierpont Morgan (1837–1913). Many of the leading British figures in the history of art are represented in the exhibition, including Thomas Gainsborough (1727–1788), William Blake (1757–1827), Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), John Constable (1776–1837), Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882), and Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833–1898). Their drawings and watercolors span a range of artistic modes and genres, including landscapes, portraits, scenes of urban life, architectural renderings, figure and nature studies, illustrations, and still lifes. Some of the works were inspired by imagination, while others were rooted in careful observation and interpretation of the natural and man-made world. Since the inception of its temporary exhibition program in 1985, the Frick Art & Historical Center has specialized in presenting outstanding drawing exhibitions from some of the most renowned collections in the world. A number of artists represented in To Observe and Imagine, including Henry Fuseli (1741–1825), Inigo Jones (1573–1652), Wenceslaus Hollar (1607–1677), Thomas Rowlandson (1756–1827), Edward Lear (1812–1888), and Thomas Shotter Boys (1803–1874), have been featured in previous single-artist exhibitions at The Frick Art Museum. Like Henry Clay Frick, the great American financier Pierpont Morgan was one of the nation’s preeminent art collectors and cultural benefactors. British drawings were among the first drawings acquired by Morgan, who purchased William Blake’s illustrations to the Book of Job in 1903. His 1909 purchase of virtually all the holdings of English Pre-Raphaelite artist and collector Charles Fairfax Murray (1849–1919) added important eighteenth-century drawings to his collection. Over the years, the Morgan Library’s collection of master drawings has continued to grow and today numbers nearly 10,000 sheets spanning the fourteenth to the twentieth centuries. One attribute shared by nearly all the holdings, however, is their fragility. Works on paper are especially sensitive to the damaging effects of light exposure and fluctuations in temperature and humidity. Accordingly, To Observe and Imagine is being presented in only two venues: the Frick is the exhibition’s second and final destination following the Taft Museum of Art’s presentation in Cincinnati last year. Frick Art & Historical Director Bill Bodine comments that, “The Frick is privileged to provide Pittsburgh residents with this rare opportunity to view drawings and watercolors from an important and wonderful American collection. We also look forward to helping our visitors make connections between the works in the exhibition and works by British artists in the Frick’s permanent collections.” To Observe and Imagine: British Drawings and Watercolors from the Morgan Library, 1600–1900, is organized by the Morgan Library, New York. The curator in charge of the exhibition tour is Cara Dufour Denison, Curator, Drawings and Prints, the Morgan Library. The exhibition will be on view at The Frick Art Museum through December 31, 2005. THE EXHIBITION To Observe and Imagine features 102 drawings and watercolors produced over a 300-year period. Seventeenth-century examples include works by Inigo Jones and foreign-born artists working in England, such as Sir Peter Lely (1618–1680), whose Portrait of a Lady Morgan purchased from the collection of Charles Fairfax Murray in 1909. During the period explored in To Observe and Imagine, landscape drawings and watercolors underwent a transformation from primarily topographical renderings by military engineers to embody a more painterly, subjective approach. Increasingly many of England’s most creative and visionary artists found their inspiration in nature, from the quiet climes of the British countryside to ancient sites in Greece, Egypt, and Rome. Among the many landscapes featured in the exhibition are The Villa d’Este at Tivoli from the Cypress Avenue by Samuel Palmer (1805–1881) and Lucerne from the Lake, a splendid watercolor by J. M. W. Turner that demonstrates the artist’s concern with the effects of light and atmosphere. Henry Fuseli and William Blake were among the British artists who sought to give allegorical form to abstract ideas, emotions, and spiritual experiences. Included in the exhibition are several of the watercolors illustrating the Book of Job that Blake produced around 1805 and Morgan acquired in 1903. The brilliant English portraitist Thomas Gainsborough is also represented by a number of works, including Study of a Lady, another of Morgan’s early acquisitions. Other figurative artists include Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones. A number of beautiful nineteenth-century drawings and watercolors by John Constable, Thomas Girtin (1775–1802), and John Ruskin (1819–1900) are also on view. The exhibition culminates in several outstanding works by the Pre-Raphaelites and includes a selection of artists’ sketchbooks. THE MORGAN LIBRARY The Morgan Library’s collection of master drawings comprises nearly 10,000 sheets spanning the fourteenth to the twentieth centuries. Most major schools and periods are represented, although the collection is richest in European drawings made before 1825. The Library also holds the finest group of etchings by the Dutch master Rembrandt in this country. In 1909 Pierpont Morgan established the core of his holdings with the purchase of approximately 1,500 old master drawings assembled during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by the English artist-collector Charles Fairfax Murray. Morgan housed his collection — which also included medieval and Renaissance manuscripts and rare books and bindings, among other objects of literary and historical importance — in his private library, which was built between 1902 and 1906 adjacent to his New York residence at Madison Avenue and 36th Street. With other acquisitions representing the combined and evolving tastes of Pierpont Morgan, his son, J. P. Morgan, Jr. (1867–1943), four Library directors, and a succession of curators and collectors, the collection has grown many times over. Today the Morgan Library is both a museum and a center for study and scholarly research with one of the world’s finest collections of drawings, rare books and manuscripts, and literary, musical, and historical works. To Observe and Imagine is part of a series of exhibitions touring the country while the Morgan undergoes an extensive expansion and renovation project. EXHIBITION SUPPORT CREDITS The Pittsburgh presentation of To Observe and Imagine: British Drawings and Watercolors from the Morgan Library, 1600–1900, is made possible, in part, through generous grants from the Richard King Mellon Foundation and Drue Heinz Trust, as well as through annual operating support grants from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and the Allegheny Regional Asset District. THE FRICK ART MUSEUM The Frick Art Museum at the Frick Art & Historical Center contains collections of fine and decorative arts assembled by Helen Clay Frick, daughter of Henry Clay Frick. In addition to exhibiting its permanent collection, which has strengths in Italian Renaissance and French eighteenth-century painting, the Museum has an active program of temporary exhibitions. Admission to The Frick Art Museum is free. Docent-led tours of To Observe and Imagine will be offered free of charge every Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday at 2:00 p.m. Groups of five or more should schedule a private tour, available for $5 per person. Tours of the permanent collection are also available for $5 per person. GENERAL INFORMATION The Frick Art & Historical Center is located at 7227 Reynolds Street in Point Breeze. Free parking is available in the Frick’s off-street lot, or along adjacent streets. The Frick is open 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m., Tuesday–Sunday, and closed Mondays and major holidays. For information and reservations, call 412-371-0600, 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m., Monday through Sunday. For further information or images, please contact Greg Langel at the Frick Art & Historical Center at 412-371-0600, ext. 524, or at glangel@frickart.org Click here for more information about special events and programs offered in conjuntion with To Observe and Imagine. |
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