While I usually get mild to severe anxiety attacks when the name Getty is mentioned these days, it is important to point out that there is a whole other Getty that also has nice images but isn’t trying to sell them for a buck fifty. I’m talking about the Getty Museum in the fair city of Los Angeles.
The Getty Center was made possible by the incredible riches accumulated by this guy:
J. Paul Getty (painted by Gerald L. Brockhurst).
J. Paul figured out a way to sell a gallon of gas for roughly three times the price of a well produced stock image and found himself almost immediately in a fancy villa in Malibu, from which he collected an amazing amount of sweet, sweet artwork. (That’s the short version of the Getty success story).
In any case, the Misses and I went on a little CA road trip recently and one of the stops was LA. I wanted to see the Getty for quite a while now and we made a bee line for it the first chance we got. It sits on a great hilltop overlooking the metropolis that has more smog than a German bar in 1985. The buildings are marvelous designs by Richard Meyer and, together with the campus, the gardens, the sculptures and the view, form a near perfect setting to view art.
There were so many great paintings that I’ve decided to focus on the portraits for this here blog post and so now, without any further ado, some personal favorites from the other Getty:
Isabella of Portugal, Workshop of Rogier van der Weyden Flemish, Flanders, about 1450, later additions about 1500
Portrait Study, Théodore Géricault, French, about 1818 - 1819
St. Bartholomew, Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn Dutch, 1661
Portrait of a Bearded Man, Jacopo Bassano, Italian, about 1550
Portrait of Barbara Kressin, Unknown, Netherlandish, 1544
An Old Man in Military Costume, Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, Dutch, about 1630 - 1631
Pope Clement VII, Sebastiano del Piombo, Italian, about 1531
Portrait of Alfonso d'Avalos, Marquis of Vasto, in Armor with a Page, Titian, Italian, Bologna, probably January-February 1533
Head of a Woman, Michael Sweerts, Flemish, about 1654
Portrait of the Marquesa de Santiago, Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, Spanish, 1804
Portrait of Anthony Valabrègue, Paul Cézanne, French, about 1869 - 1871
Euclid, Jusepe de Ribera, Spanish, Naples, Italy, about 1630 - 1635
Four Studies of a Male Head, Workshop of Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish, about 1617 - 1620
Self-Portrait, Yawning, Joseph Ducreux, French, before 1783
J. Paul Getty Museum
1200 Getty Center Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90049-1687
Phone: +1 (310) 440-7330
Fax: +1 (310) 440-7751
E-mail: (for general Museum inquiries) gettymuseum@getty.edu
Michael Sweerts’ lady looks like she could definitely be Vanessa Redgrave’s ancester.
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