HBO’s The Gilded Age immerses viewers in a world of social ambition, industrial fortunes and glittering Fifth Avenue ballrooms. But while the drama plays out on exquisitely designed sets, there is a real mansion that embodies the era’s power and taste. Now, with the upcoming publication of The Frick Collection: The Historic Interiors (Rizzoli Electa), readers can explore the house where America’s new aristocracy truly lived.
A True Gilded Age Landmark Reborn
After a multiyear renovation, The Frick Collection has returned to its original home, the 1914 Fifth Avenue mansion of steel magnate Henry Clay Frick. Chief curator Xavier F. Salomon guides readers through the house room by room, revealing how Frick’s vision — “a comfortable, well-arranged house, simple, in good taste and not ostentatious” — resulted in one of Manhattan’s most refined residences. Photographer Miguel Flores-Vianna captures every gleaming detail, from stately drawing rooms to intimate boudoirs, in more than 200 pages of newly commissioned images.
Where The Gilded Age Meets Reality
Fans of The Gilded Age will recognize the tensions of wealth, taste and ambition that drive the drama, along with the lengths characters go to secure their social standing, from hiring daring architects to enlisting celebrated decorators and cunning art dealers. Henry Clay Frick mirrored this ambition in real life, working with Sir Charles Carrick Allom, Elsie de Wolfe and prominent European dealers to transform his home into a sanctuary of Old World elegance.
Where the series dramatizes the rivalry between New York’s “old money” and “new money,” the Frick mansion reveals what happened when new money claimed its place at the pinnacle. Behind its restrained limestone façade, Frick showcased masterpieces by Bellini, Titian, Rembrandt, Goya and Vermeer, art that communicated not only immense wealth but also cultivated authority.
A Living Museum of Art and Ambition
This book is far more than an architectural tour. It is a study of how personal vision, cultural aspiration and power converged in the Gilded Age. Each chapter traces the evolution of the residence from private home to public museum, offering fresh insights into how Americans of Frick’s generation used European art to define their identity.
Salomon’s essays reveal the human stories behind the rooms: the strong-willed patron shaping his collection, the decorators balancing grandeur with intimacy, the art dealers sourcing treasures for a discerning eye. Flores-Vianna’s photography bathes each space in natural light, making the mansion feel alive, as though Frick and his family might return at any moment.
Why This Matters Now
With The Gilded Age captivating audiences and HBO renewing the series for a 4th season, interest in New York’s turn-of-the-century elite has never been higher. The Frick Collection: The Historic Interiors offers a rare opportunity to move beyond fiction and step into the authentic world of the era. It is the perfect companion for anyone who wants to see what life was really like for the men and women who built America’s fortunes and defined its cultural taste.
Hold the Gilded Age in your Hands
Whether you are an art lover, an architecture enthusiast or simply fascinated by the opulence of the late 19th century, this volume delivers an unforgettable experience. At 240 pages, printed in hardcover by Rizzoli Electa, it is both a scholarly resource and a coffee-table showpiece that is sure to spark conversation.
The Frick mansion at One East Seventieth Street still stands as a testament to wealth used in the pursuit of beauty. On screen, The Gilded Age dramatizes the rivalries and alliances of the era. On the page, The Frick Collection: The Historic Interiors invites you to step inside its actual drawing rooms, stand before its Vermeers and see how taste became power in America’s most dazzling age.
