A Glorious Spring Evening at the Frick Collection’s 2025 Garden Party

It was a pleasant cloudy 70-degree day in New York as the Frick Collection welcomed Fellows, Young Fellows, and friends for its highly anticipated 2025 Spring Garden Party. One of the city’s most refined seasonal traditions, the evening offered an unforgettable blend of art, music, and festive camaraderie in one of Manhattan’s most storied cultural landmarks.

Founded in 1935, The Frick Collection is housed in the former Gilded Age mansion of industrialist and art patron Henry Clay Frick, located on Fifth Avenue facing Central Park. The museum is renowned for its intimate, world-class collection of Old Master paintings, European sculpture, decorative arts, and rare furnishings — offering visitors a rare opportunity to experience masterpieces in the context of a private home. It has recently reopened after its renovation and enhancement project.

This year’s garden party, held on Monday, June 16, treated guests to after-hours access to the museum’s permanent collection as well as an exclusive first look at the highly anticipated special exhibition, Vermeer’s Love Letters.

The exhibition brings together several of Johannes Vermeer’s most intimate and evocative genre paintings, focusing on the theme of letter writing — a recurring motif in the Dutch master’s work. Through delicately rendered domestic interiors and quietly expressive figures, Vermeer captures the private emotions, desires, and tensions of 17th-century life. This focused presentation, accompanied by thoughtful interpretive materials, offers a unique window into Vermeer’s enduring fascination with communication, secrecy, and human connection.

Throughout the evening, guests also enjoyed special gallery talks illuminating highlights of both the exhibition and the museum’s celebrated permanent collection. In the newly revitalized Fifth Avenue Garden, partygoers mingled among manicured greenery and seasonal blooms while savoring fine wines, specialty cocktails, and seasonally inspired hors d’oeuvres. Live music provided a joyful soundtrack to the festivities, with guests celebrating the arrival of summer in quintessential New York style. Among the best dressed was Lin Gao, Goodwill Ambassador to the Eisenhower Foundation, donned in the iconic Oscar de la Renta floral minidress.

As twilight fell over the city, many lingered under the evening sky, savoring a night where art, history, and elegance converged — a cherished tradition made all the more memorable within the timeless setting of The Frick Collection.

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