Flora Yukhnovich’s exhibition, “Four Seasons,” at The Frick Collection is a site-specific installation that directly responds to the museum’s permanent collection of paintings by French Rococo artist François Boucher.
Flora Yukhnovich, born in 1990, is a British painter known for her contemporary interpretation of the Rococo style. She developed her characteristic painting style that fluctuates between abstraction and figuration. Yukhnovich’s art often uses cascading and swirling forms to evoke rhythm and energy, exploring themes of femininity.
“Flora’s clear admiration for the work of Boucher – an artist who is well represented in our collection – makes her a natural fit for this project,” stated Xavier F. Salomon, the Frick’s Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator, who initiated the collaboration.
The Boucher panels have been reinstalled on the second floor, where they originally hung in Adelaide Childs Frick’s boudoir, Henry Frick’s wife.
Why should you visit The Frick Collection?
The Frick Collection was closed for renovations in March 2020 and reopened on April 17, 2025, following the completion of a five-year restoration and expansion project.
For the first time, visitors can access the second floor and understand how Henry Frick lived with his family.
The Frick Collection was founded by the American industrialist Henry Clay Frick (1849 – 1919).
His Gilded Age residence and art collection were bequeathed to the public after his death to form the museum, which opened in 1935.
Henry Clay Frick primarily desired to collect “pleasant to live with” art, favoring portraits and landscapes over dramatic or violent religious or mythological scenes. His collecting philosophy focused on masterpieces of the highest quality that could be harmoniously displayed within his home, enhancing his desire for tranquility.
The Frick Collection features an impressive array of old masters’ paintings by artists such as Vermeer, Bellini, Rembrandt, Gainsborough, Goya and Whistler, in addition to European sculpture, fine furniture, and decorative arts.
For the critics of the elite, perhaps you should know that in 1889 Frick was made chairman of Carnegie Brothers and Company to reorganize their steel business. He initiated far-reaching improvements and bought out Carnegie’s chief competitor, the Duquesne Steel Works. He was responsible for building Carnegie into the largest manufacturer of steel and coke in the world, contributing to America’s rise as a global economic power.
Frick was a quintessential “captain of industry” (or “robber baron,” depending on one’s perspective). His relentless business acumen, wealth accumulation, and participation in the formation of U.S. Steel, was the world’s first billion-dollar corporation.
His control of the coke industry, a critical component of steel production, and his chairmanship of Carnegie Steel helped to make the U.S. the world’s leading producer of steel. This economic strength was a cornerstone of American sovereignty, as it fueled the nation’s growth, infrastructure (e.g., railroads and skyscrapers), and military capabilities.
Over the years, Frick became a significant art collector and philanthropist. By amassing a collection of masterpieces, he not only enriched his own life but also created a lasting cultural legacy for the American public.
Henry Frick came into possession of “The Four Seasons” in 1916, when he acquired the series directly from heiress and art dealer Virginia Bacon. Frick purchased Boucher’s “Arts and Sciences” the same year to adorn his wife, Adelaide Childs Frick’s, second-floor boudoir.
François Boucher (1703 – 1770) painted “The Four Seasons” in 1755 for Madame de Pompadour. The original location of those unusual shape paintings are unknow, but perhaps because of its shape, those four canvases were intended as overdoors for one of the residences of Madame de Pompadour, the mistress of King Louis XV of France, a great tastemaker and patron of the arts.
A young man places flowers in his lover’s hair in “Spring.'”
A group of voluptuous nudes bathing represents “Summer”.
In “Autumn”, a fashionable woman accepts a gift of grapes from her admirer.
In “Winter,” a man pushes the heroine through the snow on a magnificent sleigh.
The combination of luxury and seduction, presented in a lighthearted and even humorous manner, is a hallmark of the artist’s style.
Fast forward in 2025, Yukhnovich’s mural is the latest in a series of responses to the Frick’s permanent collection by living artists.
Yukhnovich’s work, which is a blend of abstraction and representation, takes the iconic themes and voluptuous forms of Boucher’s “The Four Seasons” and translates them into a contemporary mural.
Yukhnovich’s mural captures the continuous flow of the seasons through a focus on changing weather and landscapes. This panoramic installation envelops the visitor in a world of wonder and dreamlike images, much like the Frick’s Boucher and Fragonard rooms.
It is an elegant work that also celebrates what some might consider the vulgarity of Rococo art.
In Yukhnovich’s work, the heroines of Boucher and Fragonard are integrated with contemporary imagery, such as the Disney princesses and Barbie dolls she grew up with.
Her art blends historical traditions like the Rococo with modern pop culture, exploring how a shared aesthetic of femininity and idealized beauty has persisted through the centuries.
Visitors can view Boucher’s original series nearby, in the West Vestíbulo, allowing for a direct and fascinating dialogue between the two artists and their distinct interpretations of the same subject.
By engaging with Boucher, Yukhnovich creates a continuous, panoramic landscape that blurs the lines between past and present. Her painting style, which is influenced by the French Rococo, Italian Baroque, and Abstract Expressionism, reimagines the “overdoors” that Boucher’s original paintings were designed to be.
The exhibition thus becomes a modern “portal” that invites viewers to step into a space where historical ornamentation and contemporary fantasy collide.
The project, which is on view from September 3, 2025, to March 9, 2026, highlights the ongoing relevance of art history and the ways in which contemporary artists can draw from and reinterpret the legacies of Western painting.
Flora Yukhnovich will discuss her mural at a lecture in early 2026 in the museum’s new Stephen Schwarzman Auditorium.
Yukhnovich’s murals will serve as a source of inspiration to artists of all levels in the popular free Sketch Night event series.
Details at frick.org/programs
The Frick Collection reopened to the public on April 17, 2025, after a multi-year renovation project that enhanced public amenities, improved accessibility, and added new exhibition and educational spaces, including a 50-seat café, an expanded museum shop, a new education room, and a 220-seat auditorium.
Visitors can now experience the collection in restored first-floor galleries and see new installations and smaller-scale works on the newly opened second floor.
For the most current information on exhibitions, programs, and events, visit the Frick Collection’s website at frick.org. Pay-what-you-wish hours on Wednesdays.
The Frick Collection
1 E 70th St, New York, NY 10021
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Website: frick.org
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Programs: frick.org/programs
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