Henry Clay Frick [Hardcover]

Martha Frick Symington Sanger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1998

With unprecedented access to personal letters, private family diaries, and the Frick archives at the Frick Collection in New York City and at family residences in Pittsburgh, Martha Frick Symington Sanger has written an unique and penetrating account of the life and times of Henry Clay Frick and his family. In addition, the author explains in this meticulously researched book the reasons why Frick and his daughter Helen selected the paintings, sculpture, and other items that are included in the collection.

Since 1935 the magnificent act treasures of the Frick Collection have been open to the public in the New York City mansion that the family occupied. This book will enrich any visitor's experience of the Frick Collection in a way that had not been possible in previous books. The intriguing topics covered here include Frick's complex relationship with Andrew Carnegie and with other well-known business magnates; his harsh personal life darkened by the deaths of a young daughter and infant son; and a sensitive portrayal of his daughter Helen, who was a Frick Collection trustee and chairman of the Art Acquisitions Committee after her father's death.

Illustrating this book are 370 pictures ranging from paintings and sculpture in the Frick Collection to family portraits and historical images. This biography of a key figure in the development of American industry will appeal to both art history lovers and to historians, offering a singular and compelling reading and visual experience.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Henry Frick, remembered by art lovers today for his splendid collection of old-master paintings by Rembrandt, Bellini, and others that make up New York's Frick Museum, was one of the 19th century's worst robber barons. Brutal with workers, he never hesitated to hire mercenary armies to kill railway and mine strikers. Frick's was such a bloody and vicious climb to a pot of gold that his descendents have been understandably reluctant to allow historians full access to his papers. Finally, his great-granddaughter, Martha Sanger, a noted steeplechase and hunting enthusiast, decided to write about the life of her ancestor, and was allowed full use of the archives.

Sanger's publisher, Abbeville, has done her proud with a luxuriously produced volume in which Sanger offers many theories about why Frick bought certain works of art. And although art historians may dismiss her black-and-white analyses of a collector's motivations--based, as she admits, on her own years in psychoanalysis--they at least reflect how Frick's own family saw him. Among the reproductions are famous pictures by Goya, Greco, and Gainsborough, but also many others rarely reproduced, perhaps because they are typically bad-taste 19th-century art, showing that even Frick bought some duds. Whether or not he acquired paintings, as Sanger asserts, because they reminded him of a daughter who died in early childhood, Frick was still a major historical figure, and his life needs this kind of voluminous treatment in order to complement harsher portraits by professional historians like Samuel Schreiner, who subtitled his own 1995 book from St. Martins Press The Gospel of Greed. --Benjamin Ivry

From Publishers Weekly

How one of the most notorious turn-of-the-century robber barons, the "shoot-to-kill" strikebreaker Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919), amassed what is arguably the greatest collection of Old Master paintings in New York is a paradox that is difficult to explain. Nearly killed twiceAby scarlet fever as a child and later an anarchist's bulletAthe unlovable Frick gloomily marches through this illustrated biographyAwritten by his great granddaughterAachieving new heights of infamy, erecting 12-foot walls equipped with rifle holes around his factories and hiring Pinkerton detectives to strong-arm his employees. In Sanger's broadly psychoanalytical study, based on previously undisclosed family papers, the event that unlocks Citizen Frick's impulse to collect is the death of his young daughter Martha (nicknamed "Rosebud"). Sanger often explains Frick's choice in paintings by finding latent references in them to the trauma of his daughter's demise. For example, Vermeer's Mistress and Maid, which shows the delivery of a letter, becomes a possible reminder to Frick of his anguished correspondence with his wife during his daughter's illness. This approach leaves many art historical questions open: Was the collection Frick's taste alone? What was the role of Roland Knoedler, Frick's dealer (handled summarily but not sufficiently)? How did Frick's taste compare to that of the other great industrialist-collectors of the period? Sanger does an admirable job of detailing Frick's ascent to power; as the life of a tycoon, her biography is eminently readable and informative. The mystery of how Frick managed to assemble one of the great collections of art on this continent, however, remains in large part unilluminated. 225 full-color and 145 b&w illustrations.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 599 pages
• Publisher: Abbeville Press; 1st edition (September 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789205009
• ISBN-13: 978-0789205001
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.5 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #337,937 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Biography, History, And Art, August 20, 2000

By 

taking a rest - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Henry Clay Frick (Hardcover)

"Henry Clay Frick: An Intimate Portrait" is an excellent work of history, biography, and a stunning visual presentation of art. The result of a decade long effort by a Great Granddaughter of Mr. Frick, Martha Frick Symington Sanger, the book is a beautiful volume from its construction, to what is displayed and written within.

This is not as scholarly a book as Simon Schama's "Rembrandt's Eyes", and so it should be judged with distinct criteria. This is a family history as related by one of its members, so in exchange for the objective view of the Historian, we trade a certain objective detachment for an intimate portrait of the man, his family, and the legacy of art he collected. I was amused to read that one person thought that some of the works bought by Mr. Frick were "Duds". I would agree that when your collection includes multiple paintings by Vermeer, Rembrandt, El Greco, Peter Paul Rubens, Renoir, Veronese, El Greco, and Van Dyck, to name a few, some are perhaps "better" than others. I would also suggest no one would take a pass if offered a work for their own.

Mr. Frick was a very tough businessman, at times brutal, and he never hesitated to employ these tactics when he perceived his business interests were threatened. This does not make him unique among the major Capitalists that built this Country, Rockefeller, Carnegie, Fisk, and many other were also notorious by today's standards, or were they? Private armies may no longer be used, but public welfare, and the fate of employees is not always at the top of the list today either. I do not attempt to justify what they did, rather to suggest a more dispassionate view is in order. Our "Robber Barons" are often compared to the Kleptocrats of today's Russia, and that truly is absurd.

Fortunately many of these men amassed great collections of art whether rare books, paintings, historical documents, or something else that caught their interest, and we are the beneficiaries of their collections. The Morgan Library or The Frick Collection simply could not be duplicated today. Theoretically Mr. Bill Gates could pay the price, but where would you find a brace of Vermeer's offered for sale?

The book is not perfect in it's history as others have pointed out, however on balance I believe the work to be excellent, and certainly the most personal insight into the life of Mr. Frick.

Mr. Frick and others like him make easy targets, that they were flawed is not the issue, they were. They also gave back in a variety of forms a great deal of the wealth they accumulated. This may not be enough for some or even for many, but to have left no legacy other than that of brutal businessmen, I suggest, would be a great deal more disappointing.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Intimate indeed. A book that finally portrays him as human., December 28, 1999

By 

Douglas J. Richardson - See all my reviews

This review is from: Henry Clay Frick (Hardcover)

Do not be fooled by the size of this book. Once you open the book you will not find it easy to close it.

This book satisfies on many levels. If you are an art lover, you are amazed at the artwork and how beautifully the publisher reproduced it. It's the next best thing to being in Frick's art collections yourself.

If you are interested in Frick or the post Civil-War industrial era, you will at last find a revealing biography of the man that finally acknowledges that he was a human being, albeit flawed in some ways. This book should shatter some commonly held myths about Henry Frick.

My only complaint is some incomplete research. I have discovered several historical errors that a good editor should have caught. For example, and perhaps most blatant, many figures and stated facts relating to the 1889 Johnstown Flood are incorrect. But Frick's reaction to the Flood is an insight not known to many until now.

Mrs. Sanger should be proud of her book. This will serve as a definitive history of both the man and his legacy. This will be a valuable addition to your library.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thank you, Martha!, December 17, 2005

By 

JAD (The Sunshine State) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Henry Clay Frick (Hardcover)

The illustrations are glorious. The text is well-researched. The narrative flows effortlessly. The book is a treasure!

This is the book you want to read if you want to know more than the basics about the true stories from Mr. Frick's life, his involvement with the steel industry of Pittsburgh in all of its ramifications, the accumulation of wealth and the intricacies of running a powerful corporation in those heady days.

Thank you, Martha, for telling a bit more about the story of the South Fork Club and its members... And also for telling about the assassination attempt... Yes, we would have wished a bit more on the on-again, off-again relationship between Mr. Frick and Mr. Leishman. Perhaps you might consider making the story of their eventual falling-out the centerpiece to another good book?

Because there is more to the story!

Much of it has been discreetly hinted at in this book. The careful reader will find himself or herself looking into other books that tie in with this one, some of which I review elsewhere.

One only wishes that we could eavesdrop on a long conversation between Ms Sanger, Patricia Beard ("After the Ball"), Teresa Carpenter ("The Miss Stone Affair"), Les Standiford ("Meet You In Hell") and - of course - the incomparable David McCullough ("The Johnstown Flood")!

Oh what a treat that would be!

It would have been helpful had Martha chosen to describe the lives of those who interacted with Frick as members of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club he established, in much more detail. They were his Pittsburgh friends and buisness colleagues, and many were related to him by marriage. One wonders why she is silent about this chapter in Frick's life...

If you find this review helpful, check out the others I have mentioned! Happy reading!