We continue our look at intriguing but lesser-known works from the Getty’s collection with two more off-the-beaten-path tips from Museum educators. In a previous post we looked at three relief sculptures; now we turn to two lovingly detailed paintings that invite our imaginations to complete the story.
Head of a Woman
Michael Sweerts
About 1654, Oil on canvas
Getty Center, East Pavilion, Gallery E202
350 years later – a portrait so real you can hear the worn-out fabric on the jacket ripping from the tight pull of the clasps. I look at this woman’s mouth and it seems to smile involuntarily. What are these eyes looking at, and what have they seen to make such deeply etched wrinkles in the skin of her pale face?
—Zhenya Gershman, Education Project Specialist
Still Life: Tea Set
Jean-Étienne Liotard
About 1781–83, Oil on canvas
Getty Center, South Pavilion, Gallery S201
A merry disarray of toast and porcelain greets the eye in this small but highly entertaining painting by Liotard. I always wonder about the company that gathered here for tea and the sorts of conversations that were had. Can you tell by looking at the clever arrangement on the tray?
—Anna Sapenuk, Gallery Teacher
What do you think? Who is this woman and who drank that tea? Tell us in the comments below!
The painting of the woman is so absolutely beautiful! I can’t take my eyes off her gracious face!
Head of a Woman is one of my favorite Getty paintings. Her eyes are mesmerizing with a just bit of teariness above the lower lid.
Very nice paintings…Awesome
From which manufactory is the tea-set? Meissen or Sèvres or anything else? I don’t think, that it is chinese becauce since the beginning of the 18th century european manufacturies copied chinese porcelaine!
Dr. Nestler,
According to Louise Lippincott, this is an unusual case where Liotard is creating a painting of “export porcelain decorated in the Mandarin or Image pattern”.
Thanks for your interest!
You must be young. “Deeply etched”? Only if you have skin of a twenty-year-old does this wonderful woman appear to have etched wrinkles. They are joyous–and not very deep–wrinkles.
I love, LOVE the tea set still life. It looks like a bunch of obnoxious and merry youth in wigs and corsets spent some time laughing and flinging crumpets at eachother from across the table before realizing that they didn’t have time for such nonsense and then tumbled over eachother on their way outdoors to hit eachother with croquet mallets or shoot arrows at portraits of stern fathers. This piece is definitely one of my new favorites!!