Tuesday - two contrasting art museums

Yesterday was a bright sunny day again. With only a few days to go I am in the 'what can I tick off today' sort of a mindset. So we got the Crosstown 116 and then the 5th Ave downtown bus to East 70th Street and found the Frick Museum. Mr Frick was a gentleman of humble origins who made a motza from coke in the second half of the C19th. His mining of coal and coke fuelled the fledgling steel industry of Pennsylvania. He went into partnership with one of the Carnegie family and made a lot more money. However in the 1892 strike of the miners he called in mercenaries to break the strike. He was so detested in that state that he moved to New York. He bought a whole block for a new mansion - land between East 70th and 71st Streets on 5th Avenue. He was always a collector of art and the residence was designed to house his increasing collection. He died in 1919, his wife in 1931. The house was expanded to its present design and opened to the public sometime in the late 1930's.
The positives included the experience of being in a luxurious C19th New York mansion, seeing a huge variety of pieces including Medieval works, pieces from the late Renaissance including a Bellini, two by Vermeer, several Titians, two works by Veronese and a marvellous portrait by Mannerist artist Bronzino. I saw a wonderful Manet which I'd never seen in any book and works by Goya including the large loose work The Forgers. The works by El Greco were intense. There were two rooms which housed decorative schemes, one by Boucher and the other by Fragonard. They were over the top pretty frilly Rococo works. Downstairs was a temporary exhibition showing the Drawings of Picasso drawn from a variety of sources. That was really great with drawings from the age of eleven onwards.
But the atmosphere of the place was very reverent and seriously laced up. The attitude of the staff was patronising.  A bit of a shame but maybe we struck the place on a bad day. I found the atmosphere a bit stifling. The wide marble staircase down to the restrooms and the original wooden booth for the telephone were nice. The 'Ladies' facility had a marble and mirror antechamber, in order to fix up one's hat and furs I guess.
I left to walk to the Whitney which was alas closed but remembered a private gallery called the Acqua Vella up on 79th Street. This was very different to the Frick Museum. Established by the Acqua Vella family, it is still run by them, I think the third generation. Although it had two very imposing glass and iron front doors, once in it was a wonderful space. It was free which is very rare here. The woman at the desk handed each visitor a full colour brochure on the exhibition. The show, in four rooms, traces the work of Georges Braque from 1906, his highly colourful Fauvist works through Cubism and up to about 1953. He died in 1963. I've seen later works at the 1988 Sydney Biennale which were small very painterly panoramic landscapes. It was a comprehensive exhibition with works from a range of collections including the National Gallery of Australia.
It was such a lovely day that I walked all the way home from E79th Street to E118th Street exploring Madison Avenue. The neighbourhood changes from the very upmarket areas in the 70's through the more relaxed 90's past the huge Mount Sinai Hospital then the big projects established by New York City Housing Corporation to the Latino area of East Harlem from 116th Street up. Thirty nine blocks and it only took about 40 minutes.