Xavier F. Salomon

In this week’s episode of Cocktails with a Curator, join Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator Xavier F. Salomon as he explores the magical brushstrokes of the first still life painting to enter The Frick Collection—one that will be very familiar to devotees of this series. Acquired at the end of World War II by the museum’s trustees, Jean-Siméon Chardin’s “Still Life with Plums” is a beautiful example of the artist’s skilled portrayal of light refracted and reflected by everyday objects. Xavier has paired this episode with a Gin Martini with a twist.

In this week’s episode of Cocktails with a Curator, join Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator Xavier F. Salomon as he discusses the Pazzi Conspiracy, an attack on Lorenzo de' Medici and his brother, Giuliano, in the cathedral of Florence on April 26, 1478. This important event in Florentine history was commemorated in a convention-busting medal by Bertoldo di Giovanni, a “familiare” (favorite) of the Medici household. This week’s complementary cocktail is the Cardinale, so named because its dark red color evokes a cardinal’s vestments.

In this week’s episode of Cocktails with a Curator, examine the exceptional Mughal carpets—the only two objects at the Frick made in India—with Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator Xavier F. Salomon. These incredibly luxurious carpets were likely created during the reign of Shah Jahan, one of the greatest Mughal emperors and the builder of the Taj Mahal. Rarely on view, they will be on display at Frick Madison in early 2021. This week’s complementary cocktail is a Chai Martini.

In this week’s episode of “Cocktails with a Curator,” Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator Xavier F. Salomon maps the century-long journey of Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s Progress of Love series from Paris to Provence to London to New York. Fragonard’s career faltered because of his association with the ancien régime, and the Progress of Love was in many respects his last great accomplishment before he died in penury in 1806.

In this week’s episode of “Cocktails with a Curator,” join Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator Xavier F. Salomon as he discusses Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s Progress of Love paintings and the capricious countess who commissioned the series, Madame du Barry, mistress of Louis XV. Delve into the tumultuous life of Du Barry, who was born in poverty and clashed with Marie-Antoinette at Versailles. Tune in next week to discover how the Progress of Love series made its way from eighteenth-century France to the Frick’s beloved Fragonard Room.

In this week’s episode of “Cocktails with a Curator,” Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator Xavier F. Salomon enjoys a Great Maiden’s Blush cocktail while discussing a 1795 portrait of Elizabeth Sophia Baillie (née de Vismes) by Sir William Beechey. A work of mysterious origin—and thought for a century to be by the English portraitist John Hoppner—it was only recently attributed to Beechey by Eloise Owens during her time as a curatorial assistant at the Frick.

In this week’s episode of “Cocktails with a Curator,” Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator Xavier F. Salomon delves into the significance of a deceptively simple teapot designed by Johann Friedrich Böttger and given to the Frick by the great German-born collector Henry H. Arnhold (1921–2018). Enjoy a Saxon cocktail while exploring the complicated history behind Böttger’s quest to discover the formula for porcelain in a clifftop fortress outside Dresden in the early 18th century.