The permanent collection is displayed in off-ramp galleries while special exhibitions get the run of the house. The best time to go is Friday evening, when jazz fills the rotunda. It marks a turning point in his career, the moment he reintroduced brilliant color with strident, even discordant hues of reds and oranges. Adelaid Frick, who outlasted her husband, lived here until 1931, when it was turned into a museum. It still feels like someone's house, but now we get to wander through rooms filled with paintings by Rembrandt, Vermeer, El Greco and Titian, among others, and stroll through the garden courtyard.
Visitors tend to linger longer here than in any other museum in New York.
It may surprise you to know that some of the faces staring back at you were strangers to Frick, too. At the turn of the century, newly minted millionaires had a thing for portraits of powdered English artistocrats. A Joshua Reynolds on the living room wall took the shine off new money. You'll find plenty of them in the dining room and library as well. Call in advance for a schedule of concerts in the Music Room.