Eye Candy
I had a day to myself last weekend and perhaps not surprisingly, dedicated much of my afternoon to a revisit of The Frick Collection. My membership allowed me a 10am preview of Vermeer's Love Letters, the Frick’s inaugural exhibition, one that has been described as an “intimate summer snack” in the heart of the city. Comprised of an unprecedented gathering of three masterworks by Vermeer: Mistress and Maid (from the Frick), The Love Letter (on loan from the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam), and Woman Writing a Letter, with Her Maid (lent by the National Gallery of Ireland), this show is a gem.
For the first time, these intimate socially-nuanced domestic scenes—uniting themes of correspondence, emotion, and social nuance—are displayed side by side in a single, carefully curated space. The thoughtful installation highlights Vermeer’s subtle yet powerful storytelling—women and their maids poised in moments of emotional exchange–are reflective of Vermeer’s profound sensitivity to the private inner lives of women, and the intricate bonds conveyed through epistolary gestures.
Primed for more visual confection I roamed into the Garden Court to take in the sunlight and eye-popping greenery. And then, as if pulled by a magnetic pole, I found myself seated on the green velvet settee in the East Gallery, gazing starry-eyed at Whistler’s Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink: Portrait of Mrs. Frances Leyland. The delicate flesh tones, pale blushes, and warm pearlescent pinks of Mrs. Leyland’s gown and complexion are sumptuously, almost ethereally echoed in the textile-clad walls, creating an enveloping visual resonance that feels less like a viewing and more like a reverie.
I felt as if I was suspended in time, having entered a 19th-century drawing room: soft light, satin finish, the hushed rustle of silk. The painting, a pinnacle of Whistler’s aesthetic philosophy, is suspended in a space that now seems designed to echo its tonal whisper. The palette harmonizes exquisitely with the room’s newly-installed rose-hued silk damask walls.
And as if that’s not enough! The porcelain hollyhock branches displayed beside Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink is part of the Porcelain Garden installation, the creation of Vladimir Kanevsky, a Ukrainian-born sculptor renowned for his extraordinarily lifelike porcelain botanicals. Rendered with astonishing realism in soft-paste porcelain, bone china, parian body (self-glazing porcelain), black porcelain, glazes, copper, and terracotta, these sculptural blossoms gracefully echo the verticality and tonal nuance of the portrait and silk damask walls, enhancing the room’s immersive qualities. The hollyhocks elevate the gallery’s floral conversation, linking the naturalism of Kanevsky’s craftsmanship with Whistler’s subtle chromatic narrative.
This refined presentation honors not only Whistler’s aesthetic vision but also the Frick’s dedication to sensorially rich curation. It encourages lingering, drawing the viewer into an experience that reveals not just the sitter’s elegance, but also the meticulous orchestration of space, texture, and tone that envelops her. In this context, the familiar trope of "eye candy" takes on an entirely new—and far more sophisticated—meaning.
