Description

Docent tours designed to introduce visitors to the TimkenÌs Putnam Foundation Collection are offered on Tuesday, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to noon, and every 3rd Tuesday from 1 to 3 p.m. These tours are open to the public, offered free of charge, and can be 1/2-hour to 1-hour long, depending on the visitor's schedule.

The world-class Putnam Foundation Collection is on permanent display in the Timken Museum of Art. European old master paintings, Russian icons and American art constitute the primary focus of the collection.

The Putnam Collection's European paintings span nearly 600 years of Western art from early Italian altarpieces to mid-nineteenth century French landscape painting. The collection includes fine examples of French, Dutch, Flemish, and Italian painting. A featured highlight is San Diego's only painting by the great Dutch artist Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn.

The American collection is noted for its choice selection of paintings. Among its celebrated masterworks are paintings by John Singleton Copley and Eastman Johnson.

Russian icons from the Moscow and Novgorad schools, the oldest dating to the fifteenth century, are on view in a special gallery. A late bronze sculpture of Mercury by the famed sculptor Giambologna graces the center of the rotunda, which is adorned with French seventeenth century tapestries from the Stories of Queen Artemisia series.