Earlier this year, the Getty Center acquired a significant work by renowned French painter, Édouard Manet.  This week, it will go on view.  The oil painting, entitled “Portrait of Madame Brunet,” is characteristic of Manet’s early Realist style during which he drew inspiration from two famous Baroque painters, Frans Hals and Diego Velázquez.

“Portrait of Madame Brunet” was created during the same time period as Manet’s two most famous works, “Luncheon Upon the Grass” and “Olympia.”  And like those two paintings, which created much controversy when first shown, so did the “Portrait of Madame Brunet”; the lady in question apparently left Manet’s studio in a horrified huff upon viewing it for the first, and presumably last, time.  This did not stop Manet from exhibiting the painting under the decorously vague title “Portrait of Madame B…” and it remained with him at his studio until his death. 

The Manet artwork made its way to the United States from Paris via noted art collector and philanthropist Joan Whitney Payson.  She was also the owner of Vincent van Gogh's “Irises,” painted in 1889, which has now been part of the Getty's permanent collection for some twenty years. 

The Getty had been approached previously as a potential buyer for the “Portrait of Madame Brunet,” but according to senior curator of painting Scott Schaefer, “the timing was never right.”  This recent addition is viewed as new president and CEO James Cuno’s first major purchase, and part of the ongoing effort by the Getty to revamp its collection. 

The “Portrait of Madame Brunet“ joins one other painting by Manet at the Getty Museum, the smaller, more Impressionistic “The Rue Mosnier with Flags” (1878).

Meanwhile, not far away at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), two important sculptural acquisitions were made this month.  The allegorical sculptures “Wealth” and “Prudence,” by Baroque Florentine master Giovanni Barrata, have been noted for their refined elegance, and their rediscovery as significant to the study of 18th century Florentine art. 

These life-size works in marble were created in 1709, commissioned by Niccolò Maria Giugni (1672-1717) to celebrate the well-known Medici family with whom he had ties.

Both of the statues are female and while “Wealth” is fittingly depicted covered in jewels and holding a crown, “Prudence” is slightly more ambiguous, shown holding an eel, arrow and a mirror. 

These sculptures are an important addition to LACMA’s Baroque Florentine sculpture collection, as they represent the only marbles in the grouping.  The works are generous gifts to the museum by long-time benefactor, The Ahmanson Foundation, which has contributed extensively to the development of LACMA’s collection of European Painting and Sculpture over the last forty years.

(Report: Christine Bolli for ARTFIXdaily)