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The length of the United States separates Fifth Ave in New York from the leafy avenues of San Antonio in Texas, but both have a gallery that incorporates a collection of fine art within the great house of the collector who donated it to the city. In New York it is the Frick Collection; in San Antonio, the McNay Art Museum.
A gallery in a great house is very special. There are a number of such collections matched to their owners' houses, usually with a more intimate atmosphere than the big museums. Examples are the Wallace Collection in Manchester House and the Iveagh Bequest in Kenwood House in London, Pollack House in Glasgow and the Jacquemart-Andre Museum in Paris.
The Frick Collection of Fifth Ave has good claim to be the most splendid of all.
The collection in New York was founded by Henry Clay Frick who made an immense fortune from steel and bequeathed his house and most of his artwork to become a public gallery. It is only a step from the huge Metropolitan Museum of Art but, for many people, the size of the collection is more manageable. In some areas the masterpieces are comparable, notably the grand Rembrandt self-portrait that dominates the largest room, though it is a space filled with masterpieces by outstanding painters from many eras.
There is also a link with the wonderful Wallace Collection in Manchester Square in London just off Oxford St. Both collections have a number of works by the delightfully decorative 18th century Rococo painter Francis Boucher, who set the pattern for pretty shepherds and shepherdesses pretending to herd sheep that are still with us today in porcelain figurines.
At the Frick, the paintings are splendidly hung in the galleries arranged around a lovely, carefully maintained interior garden.#The collection ranges from early Italian through the Renaissance to the 19th century. Typical of the way it is excellently displayed is the positioning of an extremely rare painting of St John the Evangelist by Piero della Francesca at the end of a long vista through the West Gallery.
As you move from the entrance hall with its posthumous sculptured portrait of Henry Frick, each room offers masterpieces from different periods. There is another rare work - this time by Jan van Eyck, the early Flemish painter who was one of the first artists to use oil paint.
His Virgin and Child is notable for the tiny detail and glowing colour made possible by the medium. The South Hall offers two paintings by Vermeer. There are only about 30 paintings by this great Dutch artist and the Frick Collection has three. One of them, showing a maid delivering a letter to her mistress, was the last painting bought by Frick in 1919, the year of his death.
Another painting that was a favourite of his was the famous portrait of Sir Thomas More by Holbein.
It is in the vast Living Hall in the centre of the house along with a broadly painted, vivid painting by El Greco and a superb portrait by Titian of his friend, the scurrilous poet Pietro Aretino who wrote extremely pornographic verse about his enemies.
The same room contains the loveliest painting in the whole collection by Giovanni Bellini which shows St Francis in the wilderness.#The face of the saint shows great character and the landscape around him is filled with light and details that indicate his love of all living things.
The West Gallery offers many wonderful things including paintings by Van Dyke, Frans Hals, John Constable, Turner and three great paintings by Rembrandt including one of the most majestic of his 60 self-portraits done at the height of his powers and influence.
Oil wealth contributed to the great house in San Antonio. It is called the Marian Koogler McNay Art Museum and the appealing collection it houses is smaller and more modern than the work in the Frick, but equally select.
The magnificent house, also with a lovely interior garden, is Spanish-Mexican in style. It is surrounded by a splendid park with delightful wooded paths. For Aucklanders, there is an immediate link because, as with the Auckland Art Gallery, the front is graced with a kinetic sculpture by George Rickey that is moved by the wind. The work in San Antonio is called Horizontal Columns of Five Squares Eccentric II.
The house and much of its collection were gifted to the city by Marion Koogler McNay. She was an oil heiress, married four times, a gifted painter and a collector with a fine eye. Because she moved in artistic circles, she was acquainted with the advanced movements of the early 20th century and was brave enough to collect work that was revolutionary at the time.
The house, with its spectacular facade, interior open arcades and central pool would make a fascinating tour in itself but when you encounter an elegant Modigliani of A Girl with Blue Eyes or a deeply meditated late Cezanne of a river landscape, or a magnificent early Picasso, or an unusual, utterly charming Symbolist work by Odilon Redon, you know the collection and the building offer a special experience.
One of the most telling works is a self-portrait by Gauguin. The energy of the hook-nosed painter comes through not only in his face and glance but also in the way his profile is integrated in the compositional scheme.
The building also has a magnificent library and sculpture court and makes a point of emphasising its Latin American links. San Antonio has a fine Museum of Art and this beautiful gallery is an impressive adjunct to it in the same way the Frick complements the Metropolitan.
