Customer Reviews

Henry Clay Frick

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"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Fortunately many of these men amassed great collections of art whether rare books, paintings, historical documents, or something else that caught their interest, and we are the beneficiaries of their collections.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.

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.

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!

This was an excellent book! Being a Pittsburgh boy, I grew up surrounded with the donations of Frick and Carnegie, and was always curious about their story. The portrait painted by Ms. Sanger about her ancestor is realistic yet gentle and full of understanding. The physical characteristics of the book are also fine, with heavy stock paper and marvelous illustrations. This is the definitive biography of Henry Clay Frick.

This is a beautifully illustrated, well-written and engaging story of Henry Clay Frick, founder of the Frick Collection in New York City. It looks at the psychological motivations behind the collection, and strange and tragic losses sustained by his family over time. Includes images from Frick Collections in New York, Pittsburgh, and previously unseen family photos.

The book is amazing in so many ways. When I had finished it, I felt as if I'd experienced something far more important than a mere biography; her legacy or her life's masterpiece, perhaps. If so, then in my opinion, and with all due respect, she's outdone her forebearers.

The illustrations alone almost make this book worth the price. Yet there are quite a few historical errors that need to be corrected. There are, for example, a few mistakes in the section dealing with the 1889 Johnstown Flood. But the reader can tell that this book was a passion for her, and she should be commended for tackling a difficult subject. It's rarely easy writing objectively about one's ancestors.

I found this book fascinating as it covered not only the events that made Frick stand out as a leading industrialist, but also details his painful family life, including the loss of two children, that shaped his thinking and way of life.
In addition, this book details Frick's passion for art collecting and goes into vivid detail about the meaning behind some of his purchases as contrasted with his life events.
I am looking forward to touring the Clayton home preserved in Pittsburgh in the future.
Beautifully written.

One step above a vanity press endeavor. A family member's gothic tale about the wealthy business tycoon Henry Clay Frick and his two daughters, Martha and Helen. Martha dies in infancy (too many words in this book are spilt on the details of the accidental ingestion of a pin that caused her demise) setting the stage for a psychological drama playing out over decades and apparently worthy of Freud.

The great works of art contained in Frick Collection are used here merely to illustrate the strangely introspective, maudlin, or near crazy behavior of this dysfunctional family.

Only if you have a very deep need to know about the Frick family should you trouble yourself with this tome.