The Getty Museum

Last weekend we visited the J. Paul Getty Museum during a short stay in the Los Angeles area.

The Getty is just off I-405 on a foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains, and gives a fantastic view of Los Angeles, as you can see in the picture to the left.

The museum is actually a collection of buildings. Each building has a defined art period, or subject matter. Between and around the buildings are attractive garden areas you can walk through. There are also outside sitting areas where you can drink coffee as you overlook the city or look out towards the Pacific.

The big painting of interest during our visit was “A Bar at the Folies-Bergere” by French Painter Edourd Manet (shown just below). It’s on loan from the Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery in London until September 9th, 2007.

A Bar at the Folies-Bergere is housed on the first floor of the West Pavilion, and has an entire room to itself. The room is always packed and you have to position yourself in the crowd to get a good look.

The other popular painting with a constant crowd was Vincent Van Goh’s Irises. I asked the guard if they had any other Van Gohs on display. He said "Oh, yes." All I had to do was go outside the building, look down at I-405, and I would see “lots of vans go.” (drum roll.)

My wife's favorite painting was Claude Monet’s Still Life Flowers and Fruits (shown below). She is partial to still lifes.





My favorite was Raphael’s Portrait of a Young Man in Red.








Lastly here’s a photo of my brother in law, my wife and myself overlooking the ocean from the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. We were about to go into Gladstone's, a popular seafood restaurant. Please note the unbelievable absence of any movie stars or agents clamoring around our persons. Gladstone's is at the corner of Pacific Coast Highway and the infamous Sunset Boulevard. "All right, Mr. DeMille, we're ready for our close-up!"

JP