Diary, Friday June 3, 2022. Overcast and cool-ish morning yesterday. Turned into a bright and sunny (and warm) afternoon. Then a heavy shower around four o’clock, leaving us with pleasant and overcast sundown.
Today’s News today. I just got the following message from a reader/friend:
My friends are in London this week and they texted me to say that it was really great there today. Almost like some sort of a dream, after all of the bad moments the world has experienced. Happy people, huge crowds and joyous events, for once! They said the littlest Prince, Louis, stole the show today. Well, almost stole it.
Right after getting that message, I saw the news that the Queen had felt discomfort after standing, watching the Trooping the Colour and had decided to forego today’s gathering schedule. She returned to Windsor to rest but also held another public moment with the Lighting.
The Daily Mail has The BEST coverage of the Platinum Jubilee and great photos of the day and the Queen both in London and at Windsor at the end of her day.
I wondered to myself if the Queen was overcome by nerves. The simple personal impact of such an enormous public gesture for one person to experience must be deeply profound. And she has reached an age where the perception of life, and of that amazing life, and that profound experience finally has been altered by time.
Despite her great inner strength, after all, this great woman is only human. It’s possible that she’s just been overcome by the love, really — of millions all over the world — for her. Imagine all that energy being directed at you. You would feel it, as much as she — this daughter, sister, mother, wife, grandmother, great-grandmother, widow and the longest living Queen of England in its long history — might feel it. And rightfully so. At this moment; she is actually the most Powerful Person in the world in as much as she can get attention for Goodness. Lest we forget there is such a thing these days. Just to have stimulated the international response to her presence today defines it. The response and the persona is good news for all of us. For a change; even if for a moment.
Meanwhile, back in little old Manhattan, last Monday a week, The Frick Collection hosted their annual Spring Garden Party for 500 of its most loyal supporters, the Fellows and Young Fellows.
It was the first time the event was held at Frick Madison, the museum’s temporary home in the iconic modernist building on the Upper East Side designed by Marcel Breuer.
The guests were having the experience of the Frick’s masterpieces reframed at Frick Madison. There they encountered highlights from one of the world’s foremost collections of European paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts. Ranging from the Renaissance to the early 20th century, the once-in-a-lifetime presentation includes works by celebrated artists such as Bellini, Degas, Fragonard, Gainsborough, Goya, Ingres, Rembrandt, Titian, Van Dyck, Vermeer, and Veronese.
The evening began with cocktails and a tempting variety of seasonally inspired hors d’oeuvres and desserts which were served in the lower garden area of the museum, accompanied by music from noted New York City–based jazz quartet The Flail.
All galleries were open for the guests, and there were short gallery talks offered. The Frick’s events have a quiet formality that the actual Frick mansion inspires. It is nevertheless relaxing and a very pleasant experience; and the art provides an atmosphere of peace and serenity for the evening. It’s New York for a moment in the right time.
Big guest list included: Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Director Ian Wardropper, Paul Arnhold and Wes Gordon, Jeanne and Bill Bice, Margot andJerry Bogert, Ayesha Bulchandani, Sharese Bullock-Bailey, Eaddy Kirnan Bunzel and Theodore Bunzel, Tai-Heng Chkeng and Cole Harrell, Amy and Gary Churgin, Meredes de Guadiola, Betty and Jean-Marie Eveillard, Barbara Fleishman, Emily Frick,Karen Z. Gray-Krehbiel and John Krehbiel Jr., Lisa Hess, Andrew and Felicity Jones, Alexandra and Cody Kittle, Teresa Lin, Joanna Masiyiwa, Laurence Ross Milstein, Harlan Minor, Deborah and Chuck Royce, Anita Saggurti, and Neil Westreich.
Host Committee: Allen Adler and Frances Beatty Adler, Lizzie Asher, Eiko and Michael Assael, Sandra and Harvey Benenson, Eric Blair-Joannou, Peter and Sofia Blanchard, Marian and Richard Bott, Erick Brocoy, Elizabeth A. R. and Ralph S. Brown Jr., Edward Lee Cave, Quaid Childers, Margaret Civetta, Emily Clegg, Johanna and Benjamin Collins-Wood, Carla Bossi Comelli, Helen Condo, Anna Du and Clay Zou, Allison M. Ecung, Michael M. Espiritu, M.D., Barbara and Brad Evans, Mary W. G. Fowler, Marina Kellen French, Bart Friedman and Wendy A. Stein, Amanda Gallagher, Lee White Galvis and Sergio Galvis, Brandon and Christie Gamble, Dr. Jun Ge, Stephen A. Geiger, Henry P. Godfrey and Ginger Schnaper, Sihien Goh, Robert B. Goodfellow, Steve and Luz-Mary Harris, Bob Hermann III, Merrill Hermann, Patricia D. Klingenstein, Elizabeth Kurpis, Dean Laurence and Kate Gruenberg, Brian P. Lei, Marc A. Lewinstein, Julian and Wendy Lewison, Robert N. LiCalzi and Salina M. Grilli, Alex Christian Maccaro, Morgan V. Manley, Esq., Sterling McDavid, Monika McLennan, Catherine S. Michaelson, Sophia Michelen, Douglas Graham Moore Jr.
Also: Anil and Neisha Nair, Dylan Kelsey Naughton, Matthew Christopher Pietras, Juan Pablo Pitarque and Meaghan Trentacost, Drew Poffel, Laura Price and Zachary Seaverns, Dana Prussian, Katharine Rayner, Katherine G. Reibel, Rochelle C. and Mark H. Rosenberg, Laura Rudman, Paul Saenger, M.D., Michael and Elizabeth Santini, Stephen and Christine Schwarzman, Constantine P. Sidamon-Eristoff, Sarah Stengel, Alexa and Marc Suskin, Rebecca Vanyo, Nicole Vaughan, Judith Mann Villard, Dr. Melissa Willenborg, Jerry Ann Woodfin-Costa and Victor Costa, Alice Wright, Jennifer Wright, and Blaike Young.
Photographs by Yvonne Tnt/BFA.com & Christine A. Butler.
