The Founding Collection

Charles and Emma Frye were true partners in building their collection. They traveled together to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, where they acquired their first painting. In subsequent decades, the Fryes made several trips to Europe, often buying directly from artists in their studios. During these trips, the Fryes worked closely with a select group of artist-advisers: Henry Raschen and Eustace Paul Ziegler, who were, like the Fryes, of German descent, as well as Dutch artist Pieter van Veen. The Fryes’ collecting slowed in the early 1920s, but at some point in that decade, they purchased some of the best works from New York Philharmonic conductor Josef Stránský’s renowned collection of German and Austrian art.

The Frye Founding Collection comprises 232 paintings, primarily by two distinct generations of Munich artists: the Munich Academy and the Munich Secession. Franz von Lenbach, portraitist of the German elite, was among the “father generation”—artists who maintained the Munich Academy’s traditional teachings. Challenging the Academicians’ authority was the Munich Secession founded by Franz von Stuck, among others. This group of younger, internationalist artists was committed to a cross-cultural exchange of ideas, technical innovations, and the embrace of a wide variety of modern styles.

The Permanent Collection

The Frye’s Permanent Collection includes all artwork purchased or gifted to the Museum since its opening in 1952. The first director of the Museum, Walser Sly Greathouse, purchased nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century American artworks that complemented the Founding Collection. Many of the American artists represented in the Permanent Collection, including Albert Bierstadt, Frank Duveneck, Geri Melchers, John H. Twachtman, and William Merritt Chase, had close artistic and intellectual ties to Europe, particularly to Germany.

Above Images (L-R):
Franz von Stuck, Sin, c. 1908, unknown fluid paste on canvas, 34 7/8 x 21 5/8 in.
Dániel Somogyi, View of Königssee, 1878, oil on fabric, 46 5/8 x 59 3/16 in.
William A. Bouguereau, The Shepherdess (Gardeuse de moutons), 1881, oil on fabric, 46 x 28 1/2 in.
Alexander Max Koester, Moulting Ducks, c. 1900, oil on fabric, 28 3/8 x 51 3/8 in.