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Irises

Vincent van Gogh · 1889

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Getty Center

Los Angeles

On a hilltop in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, the J. Paul Getty Museum keeps its European paintings and a worldwide collection of photographs.

1.8 million
visitors a year: 24
acres of the hilltop campus: About 600 acres
of hillside kept in a natural state

A campus on the hill

The Getty Center opened on December 16, 1997. Richard Meier, chosen as its architect in 1984, set the museum on a hilltop reached by a tram, with a large Central Garden by Robert Irwin.

The campus covers a site of about 24 acres, surrounded by 600 acres. The site is also home to the Getty Research Institute and the Getty Foundation, along with the Getty Conservation Institute and the J. Paul Getty Trust.

One museum, two campuses

The Getty Museum began in 1954 in J. Paul Getty's house in Pacific Palisades, and in 1974 he opened a villa built as a copy of an Italian one on the same land. In 1997 the museum relocated to Brentwood in Los Angeles.

The Center branch keeps European art made before the twentieth century, from paintings and drawings to illuminated manuscripts and decorative arts, together with photographs from around the world. The Getty Museum describes itself as founded for European art from antiquity to 1900, now also holding global photographs.

The paintings on the hill

The rooms hold pre-twentieth-century European paintings. Some 1.8 million people visit the museum each year, making it one of the country's most visited.

What to see

Irises
Vincent van Gogh · 1889
A bed of irises in blues and violets with a single white bloom, painted in 1889 in the asylum garden at Saint-Rémy, and in the Getty's care since 1990.

Spring
Lawrence Alma-Tadema · 1894
Lawrence Alma-Tadema's Spring of 1894: a crowded procession of robed figures in flower-decked classical marble architecture.

The Abduction of Europa
Rembrandt · 1632
Rembrandt's rare myth scene from 1632: Europa carried into the water on a bull's back while her companions on shore throw up their hands in horror.

Starry Night
Edvard Munch · 1893
A shoreline under a dark blue night sky at Åsgårdstrand, the Norwegian resort where Munch spent his summers, painted in 1893.

Christ's Entry Into Brussels in 1889
James Ensor · 1888
A masked crowd surges down a wide Brussels street toward a small figure of Christ, painted in 1888.

La Promenade
Pierre-Auguste Renoir · 1870
A young couple steps through a woodland path in dappled light, an early Impressionist canvas Renoir painted in 1870.

Portrait of Alfonso d'Avalos, Marchese del Vasto, in Armor with a Page
Titian · 1533
The general Alfonso d'Avalos stands in dark armor while a page holds his helmet, Titian's full-length portrait of 1533.

Danaë
Orazio Gentileschi · 1623
Danaë lies back as gold falls from above, Orazio Gentileschi's canvas of about 1623.

The Farewell of Telemachus and Eucharis
Jacques-Louis David · 1818
Two lovers say goodbye in a cave, David's 1818 painting from his years of exile in Brussels.

A Young Girl Defending Herself against Eros
William-Adolphe Bouguereau · 1880
A seated girl holds Eros's arms and pushes him back while the winged child brandishes an arrow, a canvas by William-Adolphe Bouguereau from around 1880.

Waiting
Edgar Degas · 1882
A dancer bent over her foot and a woman beside her on a bench, Degas's pastel of around 1882.

Modern Rome – Campo Vaccino
J. M. W. Turner · 1839
Turner's 1839 view of Rome in hazy light.

Collections

Dutch and Flemish painting
A Woman Preparing Bread and Butter for a Boy · Pieter de Hooch · 1661
Panels and canvases from the Low Countries, from Rembrandt to the quiet interiors of Pieter de Hooch.

Italian Renaissance and Baroque
Coronation of the Virgin · Gentile da Fabriano · 1420
From Gentile da Fabriano's gilded panels to Titian, Pontormo and the Baroque work of Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi.

French painting
Young Man at His Window · Gustave Caillebotte · 1876
Neoclassical David beside Impressionist Manet, Renoir and Degas, with Caillebotte's view from a window among them.

British painting
Spring · Lawrence Alma-Tadema · 1894
Turner's Rome and Alma-Tadema's spring festival, with Gainsborough portraits in the same rooms.

Artists

Rembrandt
Rembrandt Laughing · 1628
A Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman.

Édouard Manet
The Rue Mosnier Dressed with Flags · 1878
A French modernist painter and a pivotal figure in the shift from Realism toward Impressionism.

Titian
Venus and Adonis · 1557
An Italian Renaissance painter.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Portrait of Albert Cahen d’Anvers · 1881
A leading French Impressionist artist.

Paul Cézanne
Still Life with Apples · 1893
A French Post-Impressionist painter whose work introduced new modes of representation.

Jacques-Louis David
Portrait of the Sisters Zénaïde and Charlotte Bonaparte · 1821
A French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered the preeminent painter of his era.

Paul Gauguin
The Royal End · 1892
A French painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramist and writer tied to the Post-Impressionist and Symbolist movements.

Francisco Goya
Bullfight, Suerte de Varas · 1824
A Spanish romantic painter and printmaker.

Artworks

Portrait of a Halberdier, Francesco Guardi?
Pontormo · 1529

Head of Christ
Antonio da Correggio · 1521

Allegory of Fortune
Salvator Rosa · 1658

Madonna and Child with Two Donors
Lorenzo Lotto · 1525

Lot and his Daughters
Orazio Gentileschi · 1622

The Musicians' Brawl
Georges de La Tour · 1620

Adoration of the Child
Gentile da Fabriano · 1420

The Laundress (La Blanchisseuse)
Jean-Baptiste Greuze · 1761

The Adoration of the Magi
Andrea Mantegna · 1500

Sources

Getty Center: www.getty.edu

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