Timken Museum of Art
Encyclopedia
The Timken Museum of Art is a fine art museum
located in Balboa Park in San Diego, California
, close to the San Diego Museum of Art
.
The museum, whose construction was funded by the Timken family, opened in 1965 with a small collection owned by the Putnam Foundation. The core of the collection was purchased by sisters Amy and Anne Putnam, who had settled in San Diego in the early twentieth century and made donations to the San Diego Museum of Art
in its early years. They later created a nonprofit foundation which loaned their subsequent purchases to noteworthy museums across the United States.
Shortly after the museum opened, John Walker, of the National Gallery of Art
, praised its collection, some of which had been on loan at his institution until construction on the Timken neared completion:
The holdings include works by American (Copley
, Johnson
, West
, Cole
, Bierstadt
), Italian (Savoldo, Veronese
, Guercino
), Spanish (Murillo
), and French masters (Clouet
, Claude
, Boucher
, Fragonard
, David
, Corot), as well as works of the Flemish and Dutch schools, including masterpieces by Pieter Brueghel the Elder
, Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony Van Dyck
, and Frans Hals
. The Timken is the only museum in San Diego that owns a Rembrandt in its permanent collection. Acquisitions have expanded the collection from the original forty to sixty major works.
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
located in Balboa Park in San Diego, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, close to the San Diego Museum of Art
San Diego Museum of Art
The San Diego Museum of Art is a fine arts museum located in Balboa Park in San Diego, California that houses a broad collection with particular strength in Spanish art. The San Diego Museum of Art opened as The Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego on February 28, 1926, and changed its name to the San...
.
History
San Diego Museum of Art
The San Diego Museum of Art is a fine arts museum located in Balboa Park in San Diego, California that houses a broad collection with particular strength in Spanish art. The San Diego Museum of Art opened as The Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego on February 28, 1926, and changed its name to the San...
in its early years. They later created a nonprofit foundation which loaned their subsequent purchases to noteworthy museums across the United States.
Shortly after the museum opened, John Walker, of the National Gallery of Art
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden is a national art museum, located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, in Washington, DC...
, praised its collection, some of which had been on loan at his institution until construction on the Timken neared completion:
Overview
The museum, a five-room gallery in marble and bronze designed by architect Frank Hope, displays a significant collection of European old master paintings, sculptures, and tapestries under natural light. Supplementing the European holdings are collections of American painting and Russian icons.The holdings include works by American (Copley
John Singleton Copley
John Singleton Copley was an American painter, born presumably in Boston, Massachusetts, and a son of Richard and Mary Singleton Copley, both Irish. He is famous for his portrait paintings of important figures in colonial New England, depicting in particular middle-class subjects...
, Johnson
Eastman Johnson
Eastman Johnson was an American painter, and Co-Founder of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, with his name inscribed at its entrance...
, West
Benjamin West
Benjamin West, RA was an Anglo-American painter of historical scenes around and after the time of the American War of Independence...
, Cole
Thomas Cole
Thomas Cole was an English-born American artist. He is regarded as the founder of the Hudson River School, an American art movement that flourished in the mid-19th century...
, Bierstadt
Albert Bierstadt
Albert Bierstadt was a German-American painter best known for his lavish, sweeping landscapes of the American West. In obtaining the subject matter for these works, Bierstadt joined several journeys of the Westward Expansion...
), Italian (Savoldo, Veronese
Paolo Veronese
Paolo Veronese was an Italian painter of the Renaissance in Venice, famous for paintings such as The Wedding at Cana and The Feast in the House of Levi...
, Guercino
Giovanni Francesco Barbieri
Giovanni Francesco Barbieri , best known as Guercino or Il Guercino, was an Italian Baroque painter from the region of Emilia, and active in Rome and Bologna. Guercino is Italian for 'squinter', a nickname that was given to him because he was cross-eyed...
), Spanish (Murillo
Bartolomé Estéban Murillo
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo was a Spanish Baroque painter. Although he is best known for his religious works, Murillo also produced a considerable number of paintings of contemporary women and children...
), and French masters (Clouet
François Clouet
François Clouet , son of Jean Clouet, was a French Renaissance miniaturist and painter, particularly known for his detailed portraits of the French ruling family.-Historical references:Clouet was born in Tours....
, Claude
Claude Lorrain
Claude Lorrain, , traditionally just Claude in English Claude Lorrain, , traditionally just Claude in English (also Claude Gellée, his real name, or in French Claude Gellée, , dit le Lorrain) Claude Lorrain, , traditionally just Claude in English (also Claude Gellée, his real name, or in French...
, Boucher
François Boucher
François Boucher was a French painter, a proponent of Rococo taste, known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories representing the arts or pastoral occupations, intended as a sort of two-dimensional furniture...
, Fragonard
Jean-Honoré Fragonard
Jean-Honoré Fragonard was a French painter and printmaker whose late Rococo manner was distinguished by remarkable facility, exuberance, and hedonism. One of the most prolific artists active in the last decades of the Ancien Régime, Fragonard produced more than 550 paintings , of which only five...
, David
Jacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David was an influential French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era...
, Corot), as well as works of the Flemish and Dutch schools, including masterpieces by Pieter Brueghel the Elder
Pieter Brueghel the Elder
Pieter Bruegel the Elder was a Flemish renaissance painter and printmaker known for his landscapes and peasant scenes . He is sometimes referred to as the "Peasant Bruegel" to distinguish him from other members of the Brueghel dynasty, but he is also the one generally meant when the context does...
, Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony Van Dyck
Anthony van Dyck
Sir Anthony van Dyck was a Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England. He is most famous for his portraits of Charles I of England and his family and court, painted with a relaxed elegance that was to be the dominant influence on English portrait-painting for the next...
, and Frans Hals
Frans Hals
Frans Hals was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He is notable for his loose painterly brushwork, and helped introduce this lively style of painting into Dutch art. Hals was also instrumental in the evolution of 17th century group portraiture.-Biography:Hals was born in 1580 or 1581, in Antwerp...
. The Timken is the only museum in San Diego that owns a Rembrandt in its permanent collection. Acquisitions have expanded the collection from the original forty to sixty major works.