“The addition of these 17 highly important sheets by major artists of the 16th to 20th centuries will greatly enrich the status and quality of our already renowned collection of drawings,” says Timothy Potts, Maria Hummer-Tuttle and Robert Tuttle Director of the Getty Museum. “To comment on just one of these outstanding works, the pastel by the French Impressionist Eva Gonzalès, The Maid of Honor (La Demoiselle d’honneur), is her most celebrated work and a major addition to our holdings by women artists. This drawing received rave reviews at the 1880 Paris Salon where her mentor, Edouard Manet, praised her for this success. Sadly, her career was short-lived, as she passed away just three years later.”
Another notable acquisition is At Rest after the Bath (Au repos Après le Bain), one of just 20 works that Edgar Degas chose to publish during his lifetime in his 1897 volume Degas: Vingt Dessins. The drawing complements the Museum’s holdings of other works by the artist, including a photograph which was part of his process and inspiration for making the pastel.
One of Joseph Wright of Derby’s most accomplished drawings, Study of a Boy Reading, joins the collection, featuring a young boy intently reading a book rested on a table. The artist effectively heightens the sense of light and shadow in the composition by employing the unique medium of grisaille pastel, a monochromatic technique that uses varying shades of gray to emphasize depth.
Full of humor and humanity, Guercino’s Spectators Hiding Behind a Barricade strengthens Getty’s collection of genre scenes, portraits, and landscapes by the artist. The rare genre scene features a group of figures hiding behind a tall wooden barricade, peering through at what may have been a bull run or a Palio horse race in Italy. Rapidly sketched with brush, pen, and ink, the drawing was made on the back of a draft letter likely written by Paolo Antonio, the artist’s brother, accountant, and studio manager.
“We are constantly striving to build the Getty collection of drawings for our audiences,” says Julian Brooks, senior curator of drawings at the Getty Museum. “Each of these new additions adds an important facet to our collection, and we look forward to displaying them in our dedicated galleries and, when not on display, sharing them with students, historians, and visitors in our public study room for years to come.”
On May 21, a special drawings acquisition display will open at the Getty Center in its West Pavilion, featuring the Gonzalès, Hugh Douglas Hamilton, Gaetano Gandolfi, and Francesco Paolo Michetti drawings. The new works by Degas, Redon, Wright of Derby, and Guercino’s Spectators will be included in Getty’s upcoming PST ART exhibition, Paper and Light, opening at the Getty Center on October 15, 2024. The Wright of Derby drawing will also be featured in a monographic exhibition on the artist at the Getty Center in late 2026. When not on public display, drawings are available to view by appointment in the study room at the Getty Center.
The 17 drawings are listed below. Additional information and downloadable high-resolution images are available via the Getty Museum’s collection online.
- A Study of Waves, about 1890s, by Paul-Albert Besnard (French, 1849–1936)
- La Route, 1907, by Giovanni Boldini (Italian, 1842–1931)
- The Death of Cleopatra, about 1560, by Luca Cambiaso (Italian, 1527–1585)
- Study for The Decadence of the Romans, 1846–47, by Thomas Couture (French, 1815–1879)
- At Rest After the Bath (Au Repos Après le Bain), about 1896, by Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917)
- The Head of a King Priam in Profile, 1797–99, by Gaetano Gandolfi (Italian, 1734–1802)
- The Maid of Honor (La Demoiselle d’honneur), 1879, by Eva Gonzalès (French, 1849–1883)
- Spectators Hiding Behind a Barricade, about 1630, by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, also known as Guercino, (Italian, 1591–1666)
- Susannah and the Elders, 1649–50, by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, also known as Guercino, (Italian, 1591–1666)
- Portrait of Antonio Canova, 1787, by Hugh Douglas Hamilton (Irish, 1740–1808)
- Sheet of Studies of a Dragonfly, Grasshopper, Butterflies, Moths, and Beetles, 1636, by Pieter Holsteyn the Younger (Dutch, 1614–1673)
- Head of an Angel (recto); Head of a Woman (verso), about 1890, by Francesco Paolo Michetti (Italian, 1851–1929)
- The Battle of the Bones (La Bataille des Os), about 1881, by Odilon Redon (French, 1840–1916)
- Daniel’s Vision, 1809, by Luigi Sabatelli (Italian, 1772–1850)
- Study of a Seated Boy, 1893, by Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (Spanish, 1863–1923)
- The Battle of Scannagallo, about 1583, by Jan van der Straet, called Stradanus (Netherlandish, 1523–1605)
- Study of a Boy Reading, about 1766, by Joseph Wright of Derby (British, 1734–1797)