Submitted by sir joshua, Dec 20, 2007 09:33

While a recent visit to the Frick to see the new instilation of the Fragonard room was wonderful, I did come away rather concerned about the pervasive odor or must in the green carpeted 'Bellini' room. That room contains not only the most important Giovanni Bellini painting in America, but also 2 Holbine portraits and a major El Greco. Three of those pictures are on wood which reacts to mold. This is a cause for concern. I notice the scent mostly in the summer, but it is constant and definately mold.

The reinstallation in the Met is another matter. For some reason the two major rooms in the Louis XV taste seem empty. Perhaps it is the absence of paintings! The two Natier portraits in one room offered a sense of human presence to it's magnifican scale, but now without the personal touch of the pass through from one room to the other, one is very much a spectator. The little round room, one of two vis-a-vis the shopfront from the Isle St. Louis is a bit over done, but still my favorite space in Manhatan. The installation of the biggest bed in New York City in the Louis XVI room is a hoot but probably confuses more people than informs them. It looks like a scene from 'The Princess and the Pea.' With the removal of the partition in the Louis XIV room one would think intimacy and involvement would follow, but for some reason the furniture just gets plastered up against the walls like the ocupant was planning a dance and the idea kind of falls short. In all, renovation doesn't always work. This may be only one man's opinion, but my first visit to the renovated Rooms left me flat. Old friends had changed and they just wern't giving off the aura of magnificence they had. Why no paintings in the Louis XV rooms? These were an intricate part of 18th Century decor. We don't go there to see what blank walls look like. The rooms just don't look like lives were lived there.

Without a doubt Mrs. Wrightsman is the patron saint of the French decorative arts in New York and everyone who gets a lift from a little gilt knows her name and generosity. Thank you for everything.

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