Pretty in paper

The Frick Pittsburgh commissions gown inspired by famous Rubens portrait

The exhibition “Isabelle de Borchgrave: Fashioning Art From Paper” won’t make its way to Pittsburgh until fall 2018, but locals can get a sneak peek of its life-sized historical costumes constructed from paper this month when a piece from the show goes on display at The Frick Pittsburgh.

The museum in Point Breeze commissioned Ms. de Borchgrave of Belgium — a painter who’s renowned for her exquisite, colorful paper costumes — to create one inspired by its “Portrait of Charlotte — Marguerite de Montmorency, Princess of Conde” by Peter Paul Rubens. In 1968, Helen Clay Frick bought the portrait of the French princess, dressed in elaborate redand-gold garb and draped with

Darrell Sapp/Post-Gazette The dress and the portrait upon which it is based.