(Madrid) Paintings by Greco, Goya, Velázquez and even Murillo, belonging to the Frick Collection (New York), will be exhibited from Tuesday at the Madrid Prado Museum, signing their return to Spain for the first time in a century.
These are nine works from the collection of American industrial magnate Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919) and loaned “for the first time in a hundred years”, said Monday the director of the collection Ian Wardropper, during of a press conference.
This loan takes place while the historic site of the Frick Collection in New York is closed for works, he specified.
Works have also been sent to other museums around the world, such as an exceptional set by American painter James Abbott McNeill Whistler loaned to the Musée d’Orsay in Paris until May.
The Prado will exhibit until July 2 three paintings by El Greco, four by Francisco de Goya, one by Diego Velázquez and another by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo making up the Spanish section of the Frick Collection, “limited in number of works but enormous in quality “, according to the director of the Madrid museum, Miguel Falomir.
Among these paintings, the portrait of Vincenzo Anastagiwhich El Greco painted around 1575, the only known “life-size portrait” of the Greek artist who spent much of his life in Spain, explained Javier Portús, curator in charge of Spanish painting at the Prado.
Will also be exhibited to the public Christ Driving the Merchants from the Templepainted by El Greco around 1600 and purchased for $120,000 by Henry Clay Frick at the start of the 20th century in Spain, where he bought almost all the Spanish works in his collection.
The first Spanish work purchased by Frick, in 1904, is a self-portrait by Murillo, dating from 1655, which will also be presented at the Prado.
Among Goya’s works on display are Forge (1815-20) – where “Goya’s anatomical expression is at its peak” and which had dazzled Giacometti when he visited the Frick Collection, according to Javier Portús – and a portrait of a womanmade by the painter at almost 80 years old.
The works from the Frick Collection are exhibited alongside other paintings belonging to the Prado with which they have “close ties”, says the museum’s press release.
For example, the portrait of Philip IV in Fraga de Velázquez will hang next to the portrait of Sebastián de Morra, a famous portrait of a jester painted by the Sevillian artist, as both were “painted on the same canvas”, according to Portús.