Marking the 350th anniversary of the death of Rembrandt van Rijn, this fourth volume in the Frick Diptych series offers fresh insight into one of the artist’s most romantic and enigmatic portraits—The Polish Rider. This painting has been on view at The Frick Collection since the museum opened to the public in December 1935, and has inspired countless theories about its subject, meaning and history.
An illuminating essay by Xavier F. Salomon, the Frick’s Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator, addresses the many questions of provenance, attribution, and historical and artistic context. In a creative, vibrant piece, New York based author and illustrator Maira Kalman, captures the elusive nature of the painting; an imaginary musing about Rembrandt, being Polish, a traveller, and her enduring fascination with the Frick.
Designed to foster critical engagement and interest the specialist and non-specialist alike, each book in the Frick Diptych series illuminates a single work in the Frick’s rich collection with an essay by a Frick curator paired with a contribution from a contemporary artist or writer. Other volumes in the series include Holbein’s Sir Thomas More by Hilary Mantel and Xavier F. Salomon, Vermeer’s Mistress and Maid by James Ivory and Margaret Iacono, and Gouthière’s Candelabras by Edmund de Waal and Charlotte Vignon.
