Eli Wilner & Company has been recognized as the leading authority on historic American and European picture frames. We sat down with founder Eli Wilner to understand how framing has evolved and why Crozier and Eli Wilner make perfect partners.
LC: Eli Wilner was founded in 1978, just two years after Crozier, how have you seen the world of framing evolve in that time?
E.W: When we started out, attitudes towards framing were very different. It wasn’t something that was covered at art school and there was limited knowledge about how 19th and 20th century paintings were originally framed and so the default was to use French reproduction frames. A great example of this included masterpieces hung in the White House. Paintings by Sargent, Church and Whittredge were all in French reproduction frames until we were instructed to reframe them in styles in keeping with their origin.
LC: How do you know what the appropriate frame is for a particular painting?
EW: We visited museums all around the world to research what 16th-20th century original frames looked like and took lots of polaroids of works from artists such as David, Picasso, Homer, etc. Museum curators and directors were fascinated by this research and began to reframe their collections with exactly the style of frame that would have been used at the time the painting was created. This in turn influenced the style of frame that collectors wanted and decade by decade the thinking evolved. Today, if someone has an artwork painted in 1855, they want a frame from that period.
Pablo Picasso's “Dora Maar au Chat” (1941), 51 x 38 inches, in a replica frame by Eli Wilner & Company for Sotheby’s. Sale price $95,000,000.
LC: Tell us about one of your most meaningful projects?
EM: The firm’s most celebrated project is the hand-carved and gilded replica of the lost original frame for Washington Crossing the Delaware, the focal point of the American Wing at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Its opening measures over 12 × 21 feet, and it is surmounted by an elaborate twelve-foot-wide construction featuring an eagle, flags, pikes, a banner, and other patriotic regalia, representing one of the most ambitious frame-making projects undertaken in modern times. It’s the number one painting visitors ask for, and for me symbolizes freedom and hope.
"Washington Crossing the Delaware," with a recreation of the lost original frame by Eli Wilner & Company, in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
LC:What’s a typical day in your studio?
Our studio is 10,000 sqft, based in Long Island City, and our gallery is on York Avenue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. This morning we received a request to restore a 30 x 50 inch frame around a Bierstadt painting from a museum in Massachusetts, referred to us by a large auction house. An art advisor also inquired about reframing a Modigliani. The team has developed unparalleled expertise in the extremely labor intensive process of restoring period frames, including matching finishes so that the conserved areas are indistinguishable from the intact areas of the frame.
LC: What’s Eli Wilner’s relationship with Crozier?
Eli Wilner has worked informally with Crozier for decades, as we work with many of the same clients. I know from experience that Crozier is the best of the best. We share a commitment to the highest standards of art stewardship, preservation, and client service. Crozier’s global infrastructure, spanning storage, logistics, installation, and collections management, pairs seamlessly with our specialized expertise in historically accurate framing and frame conservation. Together, we can offer clients a fully integrated art-care experience, ensuring safe handling, secure transport, and museum-level presentation of important artworks.
LC: How do people contact Eli Wilner & Company?
For Crozier clients, the partnership provides direct access to Wilner’s expert frame consultations and conservation services, coordinated in tandem with Crozier’s project managers. Or they can reach out directly:
Eli Wilner & Company
1525 York Avenue
New York, NY 10028
Phone: 212-744-6521
Email: info@eliwilner.com
Website: www.eliwilner.com
