Ellen Prokop

Ellen Prokop is the Associate Head of Research at the Frick Art Reference Library. For more information, see her biography.

A woman holding a young child and a small spaniel on her lap.
Lost and Found

The second of a series of blog entries focusing on conservation “interventions” as recorded in the holdings of the Frick Art Reference Library Photoarchive is this problematic portrait of an engaging young woman, her son, and their serene spaniel attributed to Sir William Beechey (1753–1839).

Half-length portrait of a young woman dressed in a short-sleeved white dress and a shawl in a chair.
Art and Fashion

The first in a series of blog entries focusing on conservation “interventions” as recorded in the holdings of the Frick Art Reference Library Photoarchive is this elegant portrait of Mrs. William Bedlow Crosby attributed to Eliab Metcalf (1785‒1834), which underwent substantial restoration before 1940.

Group portrait of four young brothers and their young sister seated around a table.
The Bannard Family Leaves Brooklyn

The Photoarchive recently received a gift of three reproductions of portraits of Brooklyn’s Bannard family, including a charming group portrait of the five Bannard children.

Corner of a room with a section of fresco depicting the head and shoulders of a young blond man.
Piero della Francesca's St. Julian In Situ

In 1956, Thomas Hoving, the former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, traveled to Sansepolcro, Italy, to study and photograph works by Piero della Francesca (ca. 1415–1492), including a recently discovered fresco in the church of Santa Chiara (formerly Sant’Agostino).

A half-length painting of a young woman wearing a crown and holding an arrow and a standard.
A St. Ursula by Valentin de Boulogne?

A painting of St. Ursula originally attributed to Jusepe de Ribera (1591–1652) is more likely a work by another Caravaggesque master, the French artist known as Valentin de Boulogne (1591–1632).

Group portrait of twenty-four people standing in a garden.
The Future of Photoarchives

In late January 2013, the representatives of fourteen photoarchives based in Europe and the United States met for two days to discuss future plans for their collections.

A large room with fifty windows and a ceiling of exposed wooden rafters and beams.
The Allegorical Frescoes of the Palazzo della Ragione, Padua

The theme of this extensive fresco cycle—which is comprised of more than 300 scenes—is human life as regulated by the heavens.

Standing young male saint in a panel holding a cross and a book and facing left.
St. Lawrence Recovered

The Photoarchive allows researchers to trace the history of a work of art. The image of St. Lawrence by Niccolò di Buonaccorso of Siena, recovered from a later overpainting, offers an instructive example of this crucial aspect of our collection.

Long, triangular abstract painting with texts.
Forgotten Folk Songs

In 1932 Juliana Force, the director of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, commissioned Thomas Hart Benton (1889–1975) to create a series of eight murals for the library of the museum. While six panels from this series survive, two ceiling panels are unlocated. It is feared that they have been destroyed.

Drawing of a cityscape with fortifications and a temple on a hill at right.
The Parthenon in 1667

This detailed sketch, based on George Wheeler’s topographical drawing of 1667, documents the appearance of the Parthenon just a few years before Venetian forces shelled the Acropolis during the Republic’s struggle to take the city from the Ottomans in 1687.