A Visit to the Frick

Filling in with some background information during a letter-writing hiatus from December 20, 1949 to January 5, 1950, as June enjoys Christmas break at home (and frequent dates with Art)…

As planned, June’s mother arrived in the city on Tuesday, December 20.  She traveled on the Long Island Rail Road to Penn Station in New York City, where June would have met her at a station packed with Christmas travelers.

Maud (June’s mother) was a small-town Southern girl from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.  After her marriage to Theodore Anderson, the young couple briefly lived in New York City.  Maud retained very fond memories of her young married life in the city.  After forgetting her mother’s birthday (!), June felt she owed her mother a good time in the city and she hoped to make the visit as special as possible.

June planned to take her mother out for some last minute Christmas shopping and also a visit to June’s favorite museum, The Frick Collection at Fifth Avenue and 70th Street.  A private mansion converted into an Old Masters art museum, The Frick Collection is an elegant, tranquil oasis in the heart of the city.  Escaping from the bustle of the Christmas crowds, June and her mother would have enjoyed time with masterpieces by Vermeer, Rembrandt, Velázquez, Holbein, Titian, El Greco, and many other legendary European masters.
 

The Boucher Room, decorated with large oil panels by François Boucher,
at The Frick Collection in New York City (early 1950s).
Image courtesy of The Frick Collection/
Frick Art Reference Library Archives.

(Tomorrow – Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer.)

© 2010 Lee Price