Jill's Journal: We’ve tried hard to introduce our girls to a variety of things on this extended RV trip, but one place we were lacking was in the fine arts. What better spot to begin than the world’s wealthiest art institution, The Getty Center in Los Angeles?
J. Paul Getty, a multi-billionaire who in the 1950s was named the richest living American, was by the 1960s the world’s richest private citizen. An avid art collector, he founded the J. Paul Getty Trust in 1953. The Getty Center is one of two museums in the Los Angeles area housing part of his collection (the other is the Getty Villa in Malibu).
Located on about 750 acres in the Santa Monica Mountain foothills, The Getty Center has some pretty stunning views.
We started in the manuscript room, where the girls got an idea how the ancient texts they’ve learned about in school were painstakingly created.
This exquisite Bible was handmade in Bologna around 1250AD.
Rob and I could have spent hours oohing and ahhing over the antiquities…oh, the detail!...but we moved through quickly to preserve attention spans.
Some time with the paintings was our goal. To our delight, Erika was very interested. She particularly loved finding detail in landscapes.
It didn’t hurt that one of the first pieces we came across was a 1767 George Stubbs entitled “Brood Mares and Foals.” I was able to share with her what little I knew about Stubbs and how he chronicled the beginnings of the Thoroughbred breed. If we were looking for a way to hook her, that was it!
Some other highlights included Vincent van Gogh’s “Irises.” He painted it in 1889 in the garden of the asylum where he was recuperating from mental illness. He would be dead the next year.
Edgar Degas’ “Dancer Taking a Bow (The Star),” circa 1877.
Paul Cezanne’s “Still Life with Apples,” about 1893-94.
“Portrait of Maria Frederike van Reede-Athlone at Seven Years of Age,” by Jean-Etienne Liotard, approximately 1755-56.
Claude Monet’s “Sunrise,” 1873.
“Portrait of Albert Cahen d’Anvers,” by Pierre-Auguste Renior, 1881.
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot’s “Italian Landscape,” about 1835.
Edouard Manet’s “Portrait of Madame Brunet,” circa 1860-63.
Another Claude Monet, this one “Still Life with Flowers and Fruit,” 1869.
This is Thomas Gainsborough’s 1778 “Portrait of James Christie.” Notice Christie is leaning against a landscape; it just so happens to be one of Gainsborough’s. Christie founded the fine-arts auction house that still bears his name.
The girls really did well and earned a trip to the Getty’s family room. They got to “create” sculpture…
…enjoy “antiquities” in the reading area…
…make some art of their own…
…and interpret Latin. Erika’s certain her translation is dead on.
