The J. Paul Getty Museum

Portrait of J. Paul Getty

Object Details

Title:

Portrait of J. Paul Getty

Artist/Maker:

Gerald L. Brockhurst (English, 1890 - 1978)

Culture:

English

Date:

1938

Medium:

Oil on canvas

Object Number:

67.PA.2

Dimensions:

73.7 × 61 cm (29 × 24 in.)

Copyright:

© Richard Woodward

Credit Line:

Gift of J. Paul Getty

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Object Description

At age forty-five, J. Paul Getty sat for this portrait at Gerald Brockhurst's London studio. Brockhurst was then at the pinnacle of his career as one of the world's top society portraitists. Getty's intense gaze at the viewer, the ivory skin, and the frontal, half-length pose are characteristic of Brockhurst's portraiture. His style perfectly suited the image of a conservative businessman: somber, near-monochrome colors meticulously applied to create an individual, yet classicized, physical likeness. Nothing is revealed of Getty's inner life, personality, or occupation.

Provenance
Provenance
1938 - 1967

J. Paul Getty, American, 1892 - 1976 (Malibu, California; Sutton Place, Surrey, England), commissioned from the artist, 1938; donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1967.

Exhibitions
Exhibitions
The Eternal Masquerade: Prints and Paintings by Gerald Leslie Brockhurst (1890-1978) from the Jacob Burns Foundation (August 12 to October 8, 2006)
  • Georgia Museum of Art (Athens), August 12 to October 8, 2006
Collector's Choice: J. Paul Getty and His Antiquities (November 18, 2009 to February 8, 2010)
  • The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Villa (Malibu), November 18, 2009 to February 8, 2010
Bibliography
Bibliography

Getty, J. Paul, and Ethel Le Vane. Collector's Choice: The Chronicle of an Artistic Odyssey through Europe (London: W. H. Allen, 1955), p. 99.

Getty, J. Paul. The Joys of Collecting (New York: Hawthorn Books, Inc., 1965), p. 9.

The J. Paul Getty Museum Handbook of the Collections. 1st ed. (Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1986), pp. 2, 7, fig. 2.

Goodchild, Anne, and Marilyn F. Symmes. A Dream of Fair Women. An Exhibition of the work of Gerald Leslie Brockhurst R. A., Painter and Etcher, exh. cat. (Sheffield, Birmingham, London: 1987), pp. 18, 26.

Jaffé, David. Summary Catalogue of European Paintings in the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1997), p. 17, ill.

Ray, Romita. The Eternal Masquerade: Prints and Paintings by Gerald Leslie Brockhurst (1890-1978) (Athens, GA: Georgia Museum of Art, 2006), pp. 71-74, no. 41, fig. 25.

Barbour, Barton H., et al. American West Chronicle (Lincolnwood, IL: Publications International, 2007), p. 385, ill.

Block, Nicole. "A View of J. Paul Getty." The Iris (December 13, 2019), http://blogs.getty.edu/iris/a-view-of-j-paul-getty/ (accessed January 2, 2020), ill.