Timken Museum of Art

Welcome

San Diego’s “jewel box”

Affectionately known as San Diego’s “jewel box” of fine art, the Timken Museum of Art in San Diego’s historic Balboa Park is home to the Putnam Foundation’s significant collection of European old masters, 19th century American art and Russian icons. The collection also includes the only Rembrandt painting on public display in San Diego. Considered one of the finest small museums in the world, the Timken Museum of Art, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2015, provides visitors with an a ccessible and enriching cultural experience featuring a beautiful collection, intimate surroundings and perennially free admission. The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and Sundays 12:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. It is closed on Mondays and all major holidays. For more information visit timkenmuseum. org or call (619) 239-5548. Follow us on Facebook at Timken Museum of ArtTwitter at @TimkenMuseum and Pinterest at Timken Museum of Art.

History

San Diego’s beautiful Balboa Park

In an effort to secure the Putnam Foundation Collection for San Diego, Ames secured financial support from the Ohio-based Timken family of the Timken roller bearing fame to help build a new gallery for San Diego. The institution first opened its doors to the public in Oc¬tober 1965. The institution was named the Timken Art Gallery (now the Timken Museum of Art) because of the very generous contri-butions the Timken family had made to the cultural life of San Diego. In the years between the Foundation’s establish¬ment and the opening of the museum, the Putnam Foundation Collection paintings remained on loan to institutions such as the Metropolitan Muse¬um of Art in New York City, the National Gallery in Washington, DC, and Harvard University’s Fogg Art Museum. In 1965, the paintings were reunited, and hung in their new permanent quarters at the Timken. Located on the Prado in San Diego’s beautiful Balboa Park, the museum displays more than 60 extraordinary artworks, predominantly paintings augmented by a small holding of sculpture and decorative art. The works in the Putnam Foundation Collection are primarily in three distinct areas: Each collection boasts unique and priceless representations of the specific genre. Notable works in the collection include Rembrandt’s Saint Bartholomew (the only painting by the Dutch artist on public display in San Diego); Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s Parable of the Sower; John Singleton Copley’s Portrait of Mrs. Thomas Gage; Eastman Johnson’s classic The Cranberry Harvest, Island of Nantucket; and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot’s View of Volter¬ra. The Timken is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 AM to 4:30 PM, and Sunday

from noon to 4:30 PM. The museum is closed Monday. Admission is always free.

Architecture

Second most important mid-century builidng

of Balboa Park. The first is that it continues a

structure in Balboa Park. Standing next to a

trend of building structures of contemporary

19th century cast of Giambologna’s Mercury

design in the park. The dominant architectural

in the foyer (consciously echoing a similar cast

style in 1915 was revival: on the East Coast

in the west building of Washington’s National

Colonial Revival architecture reflected the

The mid-century modern Timken Museum

Gallery of Art), visitors can enjoy the lily pond

nation’s 18th century origins; in the Midwest

of Art today stands on a prime location in

to the east and the Plaza de Panama to the

one sees Romanesque Revival; in San Diego

Balboa Park’s Plaza de Panama, the site of an

west as the sun rises and sets. Garden courts

it is natural to find Spanish Revival. Twenty

important, but temporary, edifice for the 1915

dissect the structure’s middle and blur lines

years later there was a trend toward modernist

Panama-California Exposition. That structure,

between interior and exterior spaces and

designs and the buildings created for the 1935

the Home Economy Building designed by

engage San Diego’s moderate climate and

Exposition, such as the Ford Building (now

architect Carleton Winslow, was demolished in

abundant sunshine.

the San Diego Air and Space Museum) are art

1963. The Timken is arguably the second most important mid-century building in San Diego, after Louis Kahn’s iconic Salk Institute. The Timken is all the more significant for being designed by a local architect.

The firm hired internationally-acclaimed lighting designer Richard Kelly to design the museum’s interior and exterior lighting scheme. Kelly, who was favored by architects

deco in form. So the creation of a mid-century modern, International Style, museum in 1965, especially in Southern California, should come as a logical progression.

such as Kahn, Mies van der Rohe and Philip

The second point is that the Timken was the

The groundwork for the museum began in

Johnson, provided a unique skylight program

most expensive building erected in San Diego

1951. With the help of longtime friend and

for filtered sunlight to bathe the masterpieces

up to that time. The benefactors were proud

lawyer Walter Ames, the sisters Amy and Anne

in a way that was both considerate to the

that not only was no expense spared, but that

Putnam established the nonprofit Putnam

health of the art and consistent during the

on completion it was given to the city for the

Foundation, under which any art acquired

sun’s daily journey across the sky. During mid-

benefit, pleasure and inspiration of the citizens

became part of the Putnam Foundation

summer there is often no need for artificial

of San Diego and visitors to the city. The

Collection. After Ames secured financial

lights in the galleries.

building and its contents are available free.

support from the Timken family and its foundation, the firm of Frank L. Hope and Associates, the largest of its kind in the region, was hired to design and build a museum to display the collection in San Diego in perpetuity.

Hope’s design leader Howard Shaw provided the designs for the grill work and bronze fascia scheme on the exterior. He also embellished the entry in floral-themed bronze plates and continued the abstraction to the bronze railings, gates and grill-work that punctuates

While the Hope firm established a working

the light, airy feeling of the Timken’s glazed

team for the project, John Mock, Hope’s

openings.

architect in charge of contemporary design, was responsible for the conception of the building. Mock attended several meetings with Walter Ames and Frank Hope Sr. and Jr. to discuss the main design feature – the ability to embrace Balboa Park from within the building. In contrast to other Balboa Park structures that focused internally on their own exhibits, the light and airy “see-through museum” took shape. The symmetry, balance and palette of

the stage for an experience unlike any other

materials (travertine, bronze and glass) set

Today’s rose-colored wall upholstery is not original, installed in the early 1990s to enhance the colors of the paintings. When the Timken opened the walls were a color complimenting the travertine floors, with the intention that the neutral tonality of the interior would have disappeared and one’s eye only attracted to the rich colors of the paintings and the gold frames. Two other points should be remembered when considering the Timken building in the context

Our Collection

San Diego’s only painting by Rembrandt

The world-class Putnam Foundation collection of European and American masterpieces is on permanent display at the Timken Museum. The Timken’s collection spans nearly 600 years of art from early Italian Renaissance devotional paintings to late nineteenth century paintings from the United States and includes important examples of French, Dutch and Flemish paintings in addition to Italian and American. A special feature of the museum is the significant collection of Russian icons, many from the Moscow and Novgorad Schools, ranging from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century. Don’t miss San Diego’s only painting by Rembrandt, Saint Bartholomew; Jacques-Louis David’s revolutionary portrait of the Irishman Cooper Penrose; and a masterpiece by Eastman Johnson, The Cranberry Harvest. The foyer is adorned with Parisian seventeenth century tapestries illustrating the Stories of Queen Artemisia.

American

Fitz Henry Lane, 1804-1865 Castine Harbor and Town, 1851

Oil on canvas, 50.8 x 84.5 cm (20 x 33-1/4 in.)

Benjamin West, 1738-1820 Fidelia and Speranza, 1776

Oil on canvas, 136.5 x 108.3 cm (53-3/4 x 42-5/8 in.)

Dutch & Flemish

Nicolaes Maes, 1634-1693 Portrait of a Lady, 1677

Oil on canvas, 67.6 x 56.5 cm (26-5/8 x 22-1/4 in.)

Petrus Christus, unkown-1475/76, Flemish Death of the Virgin, ca. 1460-65

Oil on oak panel, transferred to mahogany, 73.7 x 102.9 cm 67-3/8 x 54-1/2 in.)

Franz Hals, 1581/85-1666 Portrait of a Man, 1634

Oil on oak panel, 73.3 x 56.2 cm (28-7/8 x 22-1/8 in.)

French

Jean-Honoré Fragonard, 1732 - 1806 Blindman’s Buff, ca. 1775 - 80

Oil on canvas, 62.5 x 45.1 cm (24-5/8 x 17-3/4 in.)

Nicolas de Largilliérre, 1656-1746

Portrait of Marguerite de Sève, Wife of Barthélemy, 1729

Oil on canvas, 138.4 x 106.4 cm (54-1/2 x 41-7/8 in.)

Italian

Nicolas de LargilliĂŠrre, 1656-1746 Painter, end 13th-early 14th century Madonna and Child and Two Angels, with Twelve Scenes from the Passion, ca. 1310 Tempera on panel, 67.3 x 179.4 cm (26-1/2 x 70-5/8 in.)

Bartolomeo Veneto, unknown-1531 Portrait of a Lady in a Green Dress, 1530 Oil on panel, 85.9 x 67.6 cm (33-7/8 x 26-5/8 in.)

Russian Icons

The Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ 16th century, Moscow School 42.9 x 35.2 cm (32-1/8 x 26-3/4 in.)

Our Lady of Jerusalem

17th century, Moscow School 131.1 x 106.7 cm (51-5/8 x 42 in.)

The Savior Enthroned

15th century, Novgorod School 90.8 x 65.4 cm (35-3/4 x 25-3/4 in.)

French Tapestries

Tapestries from the series Stories of Queen Artemisia

(French, 1521-1599), France, ca. 1562-65

Central designs by Antoine Caron

Do You Love The Collection?

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Timken Museum of Art 2250 Fifth Ave Suite 500 San Diego, California 92103 Phone: 619.239.5548 Fax: 619.531.9640 Reservations: 619.261.9236

Email: info@timkenmuseum.org