Getty Museum unveils monumental acquisitions from Michelangelo to Degas

The J. Paul Getty Museum has announced one of its most significant acquisitions: sixteen large drawings by Renaissance and modernist artists plus a painting by Jean Antoine Watteau. The works will be displayed in the exhibition 'Michelangelo to Degas: Major New Acquisitions' from January 17 to April 22, 2018, at the Getty Center in Los Angeles. The acquisition includes a rare Michelangelo drawing of a mourning woman (circa 1500/1505), discovered in 1995 at Castle Howard in England; two Degas works—a preparatory drawing of dancers and the pastel 'After the Bath (Woman Drying Herself)' from circa 1886; and Watteau's 'La Surprise' (1718-19), rediscovered in 2007 after being known only through a 1731 engraving. Timothy Potts, director of the Getty Museum, called the acquisition transformative for the Drawings Department. Curator Julian Brooks described sharing these works as 'beyond a dream.' The Getty Museum, founded by oil magnate J. Paul Getty in 1954, initially housed in his Malibu villa, expanded to the Getty Center designed by Richard Meier in 1997.