Private Spaces, Public Personas: Elsie de Wolfe’s Interiors for Henry Clay Frick

Abstract

We cannot do better than to accept the standards of other times, and to adapt them to our uses. - Elsie de Wolfe In 1914, pioneering interior decorator Elsie de Wolfe was hired by industrialist Henry Clay Frick to design and furnish most of the private rooms on the second floor of his newly constructed mansion in New York City. Through biographical research and consultation of archival sources, this work examines the relationships between de Wolfe, Frick, and others involved in the decoration and acquisition of furnishings for his home. Also considered is the influence of de Wolfe on the Frick Collection as it is today, an analysis of interiors that are no longer extant, and reflections on the unique perspective of de Wolfe as a queer woman working at the dawn of the 20th century