The Getty Center in Los Angeles, part 5 — The Paintings
The Getty Center in Los Angeles, part 1 – Arrival
The Getty Center in Los Angeles, part 2 – The Buildings
The Getty Center in Los Angeles, part 3 — The Gardens
The Getty Center in Los Angeles, part 4 — The Clocks
Since I grew up in the small farming and ranching community of Kingsville, Texas, museums of famous paintings were a few billion miles away, leaving my only experience with them to be through school studies and my passion for philately.
I will admit that I really don’t have much appreciation for the master painters of old (Van Gogh, Rembrandt, etc.). When I go to an art museum, I’m on the lookout for those I recognize, usually because they are famous (The Scream, Mona Lisa, etc.) or I know them through United States postage stamps.
The most famous painting that I knew was owned by The Getty Center was Irisis by Vincent Van Gogh. Sadly, it was not on display during our visit. Personally, I think a painting of that magnitude should always be on display, just like The Blue Boy is always on display at the Huntington.
Although I think I took a picture of every painting that was displayed, I won’t bore you with all of them. Instead, following are my favorites:
Top of my list, simply because of the title: “Portrait of a Woman with a Book of Music,” by Italian painter Bacchiacca (Francesco Ubertini), ca. 1540. I don’t think I ever really thought about when “books of music” were first published. Of course, I had to come home and play the music on my piano……..lol
This next painting I liked because of the two guinea pigs in the bottom center of the picture. It is a combination work by two painters whose names I recognized: Peter Paul Reubens and Jan Brueghel the Elder. Reubens painted the figures and Breughel painted everything else.
“Return from War: Mars Disarmed by Venus,” ca. 1610:
This next one I like because it’s by El Greco (Doménikos Theotokópoulos). I’m not sure I ever realized exactly who El Greco was, so I learned something………Yeah! Yahoo! Yippee! & Congratulations! to me for learning something at the age of 57!
“Christ on the Cross,” ca. 1600:
If you have studied the world’s great religions as I have (and which is why I don’t belong to any of them), you’ll be familiar with this next painting. It is by Italian artist Sebastiano del Piombo and is featured in the Wikipedia article about Pope Clement VII. Pope Clement VII was Pope when England broke away from the Catholic Church and founded the Church of England.
“Portrait of Pope Clement VII,” ca. 1531:
This next painting is by French landscaper painter Claude Lorrain, with whom I was familiar.
“Coast View with the Abduction of Europa,” ca. 1645:
I think I liked the frame on the following picture more than anything else simply because it wasn’t big, ornate, and square like most of the others. I was also familiar with the Italian artist Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione.
“Arcadian Shepherds,” ca. 1655:
I have been to Mardi Gras twenty times, 1974-1993, so I am quite familar with the Bacchus parade and everything that surrounds it, including bacchantes, or female followers of Bacchus, the god of wine.
“Bacchante with an Ape,” 1627, by Dutch painter Hendrick Ter Brugghen:
Rembrandt was represented, although I have never had an appreciation for any of his works. I find them too dark and foreboding. Following are two of them.
“A Portrait of a Rabbi,” ca. 1640, by Dutch painter Rembrandt:
“An Old Man in Military Costume,” ca. 1630, by Dutch painter Rembrandt:
I wonder at what point in time “military costume” became “military uniform.”
This next painting piqued my curiosity. It is of James Christie, the founder of the Christie Auction House, and was painted by his good friend, Thomas Gainsborough, the English painter who painted The Blue Boy previously mentioned. As an aside, if you get to Los Angeles, I would also recommend going to The Huntington in San Marino where The Blue Boy hangs. It is equally as stunning in its grounds and collections as The Getty Center.
“Portrait of James Christie,” 1778:
This next painting by Peter Paul Reubens intrigued me because the placard next to the painting said that it is a recently discovered painting. Unfortunately, I could find no other information about this specific painting.
“The Calydonian Boar Hunt,” ca. 1611:
Since I live in San Diego, home to about 225,000 military personnel, I’ve seen many a parade of boats. The following picture by Dutch painter Jan van de Cappelle is one of the earliest paintings of a boat parade.
“Shipping in a Calm at Flushing with a States General Yacht Firing a Salute,” 1649:
The following painting is actually the largest pastel in existence, and it’s in its original gilt frame.
“Gabriel Bernard de Rieux,” ca. 1740, by French artist Maurice-Quentin de la Tour:
This next painting was the largest one on display, life size. I could only get a picture of half of it and decided to go for the face. As I was taking the picture, a young boy tugged at his mom’s arm and said, “Mommy, she looks mean.”
“Portrait of the Marquessa de Santiago,” 1804, by Spanish artist Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes:
I end with my three favorite ladies:
“Portrait of the Marquise de Miramon, née Thérèse Feuillant,” 1866, by French artist James Tissot:
“Portrait of Thérèse, Countess Clary Aldringen,” 1896, by American artist John Singer Sargent:
“Portrait of Ann, Countess of Chesterfield,” ca. 1777, by English painter Thomas Gainsborough:
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Posted on July 21, 2012, in History, Manmade, Out & About. Bookmark the permalink. 29 Comments.
Beautiful works of art but check again …“Shipping in a Calm at Flushing with a States General Yacht Firing a Salute,” 1649 has the wrong one in it’s place. Unless he has a toy boat hidden under his coat..haha.
Ooops. I didn’t catch that one. I had finished the complete post and when I saved it, WordPress deleted some text and some pictures. I spent an hour creating the post and then another hour trying to figure out what WordPress had done.
I really dislike that when creating a post with photos. We go through so much to share the photos and make the post and WP can mess it up in a second. I’ve been there too many times.
Dot
All better. Thanks!
I love Singer.
My wise old grandmother had Singer sewing machines…………………lol
You are so funny.
El Greco has to one of my favourites. When I visited Seville, for the first and only time four years ago, I couldn’t believe my luck as their art museum had the entire collection from Toledo, where El Greco lived whilst in Spain. Utter heaven, for me!
What a brilliant post. I am quite art-ignorant so I found it very interesting and educational. You would make a great art teacher!
Don’t tell me art teacher that!……………………..lol
I LOVE the skinny pigs (Guinea pigs).
To me, appreciating art is kind of like appreciating fine wine. I don’t do either well but it is fun sometimes to give it the old college try. I enjoyed looking for something in the paintings with which I could identify, like those little pigs.
One of the other paintings was titled something like “Woman with Ape.” After having been to the San Diego Zoo a billion times, I was 99.999999% certain that the creature in the painting definitely was not an “ape.”
Great work, Ray! Thank you for sharing
I’ve called you Ray again! I don’t know why I do that
I think that’s the second time!
Great work, Russell
My name used to be Russel Ray Kirk — three first names, three middle names, three last names………..
Seriously sorry, Russel. (I didn’t call you Ray or Kirk – YAY)!
There is absolutely no reason to apologize. I’m 57. Been through it all, heard it all………..lol
My name used to be Russel Ray Kirk — three first names, three middle names, three last names……….. Just call me RR or Double R…………..lol
Love the seascape with ships. Awesome work.
This is the second time that I have seen this guinea pig painting pop up in a blog!
http://rubyandwheaky.wordpress.com/2012/01/17/guinea-pigs-in-fine-art/
So cool. I love that you focused on that detail as well!
Thanks for the link. Now following another blog!
Always! It’s great to grow the community!
Wow! Thanks for the stroll through the museum, Russel Ray.
I really enjoyed the tour in pictures of the Getty Center. You did a fabulous job capture the beauty there.
Thanks!
Love these paintings! Thank you so much for sharing these
hey, looking forward to your other posts that are about to come.
Thanks for camping out in my blog today. I love the picture of guineapigs.