The Frick Collection is a museum of old master paintings and fine decorative arts in the Fifth Avenue mansion built for the industrialist Henry Clay Frick, facing Central Park at 70th Street. It is intimate where the big museums are vast: you walk through furnished rooms where paintings by Vermeer, Rembrandt, Holbein, Titian and Goya hang much as they did when the house was a home. For many art lovers, the Frick Collection is the most enjoyable museum in New York.
Why visit the Frick Collection
Frick built the house in the early 1910s, intending it to become a public museum after his death, and it opened to the public in the 1930s. The collection is small by museum standards but of extremely high quality, chosen by one collector with a strong eye. Because works are shown in domestic rooms rather than white galleries, you see them close up, often with furniture, porcelain and bronzes from the same period around them.
The museum reopened in its historic home in 2025 after a long renovation and expansion, during which the collection was shown temporarily in another building on Madison Avenue. The project restored the mansion, added new galleries, and opened rooms on the upper floor of the house to visitors.
Getting to the Frick Collection by subway
The nearest station is 68 St-Hunter College on the 6 line, under Lexington Avenue. From there, walk west along 68th or 70th Street, crossing Park and Madison Avenues, to Fifth Avenue. The walk takes about ten minutes through a quiet residential part of the Upper East Side. The museum entrance is on East 70th Street, just off Fifth Avenue.
The N, R and W at 5 Av/59 St are another option: walk north along Fifth Avenue beside Central Park for about ten to fifteen minutes.
Frick Collection tickets
Admission is by timed ticket, and booking ahead on the official website, frick.org, is strongly recommended. Demand has been high since the reopening, and popular slots can sell out. There are reduced rates for some visitors, and the museum has offered pay-what-you-wish periods at certain times; check the website for current arrangements. The Frick has long had a minimum age for children, so families should check the policy before booking.
Highlights of the collection
Vermeer
The Frick owns three paintings by Johannes Vermeer: Officer and Laughing Girl, Girl Interrupted at Her Music and Mistress and Maid. With so few Vermeers in existence, that is a remarkable group.
Rembrandt
Rembrandt's late Self-Portrait of 1658, showing the painter seated and dressed in gold, is one of the most powerful portraits in the city.
Holbein's rivals
Hans Holbein the Younger's portraits of Sir Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell hang facing each other, two men on opposite sides in the court of Henry VIII.
Bellini and the Fragonard Room
Giovanni Bellini's St. Francis in the Desert is a luminous early Renaissance landscape. The Fragonard Room is lined with a cycle of large panels by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, painted for Madame du Barry.
The Garden Court
The glass-roofed courtyard with its fountain and plants is a calm place to rest between rooms.
Best time to visit the Frick Collection
Book the first slot of the day for the quietest rooms, especially on weekends. Weekday afternoons are usually calmer than weekend middays. The museum is closed on some days each week, so confirm opening days on the official website.
Allow one and a half to two hours. The collection is compact, but it rewards slow looking.
Practical tips
- Large bags must be checked, and photography rules may differ from room to room.
- The mansion's rooms are small, so they feel crowded quickly. Let groups pass and come back to a painting.
- Pair the visit with a walk in Central Park, just across Fifth Avenue.
Nearby on the same subway stop
- Central Park: enter at East 72nd Street for the Bethesda Terrace and the lake.
- Park Avenue Armory: a vast drill hall used for large-scale art and performance.
- Asia Society: Asian art and culture on Park Avenue at 70th Street.
- Metropolitan Museum of Art: about a fifteen-minute walk north on Fifth Avenue.
For more around this station, see the Frick Collection on Around the Metro, or browse every station on the New York subway map.