Inspired by the success of Spotify's roundup of the year in music, The J. Paul Getty Museum in the US has released its own list of the top artists and artworks searched for on its website in the last 12 months. Hits of 2020 include Impressionists, colorful compositions and lush vegetation.
With the J. Paul Getty Museum closed for several months due to covid-19, art fans have been heading to the institution's website to get a culture fix from the comfort of their homes. It seems that many of them looked to Vincent van Gogh to help them through these troubled times -- which is perhaps unsurprising, since the Dutch painter was accustomed to long periods of solitude. The troubled painter tops the list of the most popular artists on the Getty Museum's website this year, ahead of Claude Monet and Édouard Manet. Fellow Dutch painter Rembrandt comes in fourth place, and Impressionist Edgar Degas comes fifth.
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Vincent van Gogh also tops the list of most-viewed artworks on the Los Angeles museum's website, with his colorful work, "Irises." The piece, painted by the Dutch artist the year before his death, while at the Saint Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France, entered the museum's collection in 1990. It momentarily became the most expensive painting ever sold when a certain Alan Bond bought it for US$53.9 millions at Sotheby's. However, the Australian businessman was seemingly unable to honor his purchase.
Other most popular artworks on the Getty Museum website in the last 12 months include "Still Life With Apples" by Paul Cézanne and "A Young Girl Defending Herself Against Eros" by William Adolphe Bouguereau. While most works in the list date from the 19th century, one dates all the way back to the 13th century, namely "Madonna and Child" by the Master of Saint Cecilia, an anonymous Italian painter who appeared to be particularly active between 1290 and 1348 in Florence.
Certain artworks mentioned in the "Getty Wrapped" retrospective proved popular choices the hit #GettyMuseumChallenge, which got art fans thinking during spring's covid-related lockdowns. The challenge asked people to recreate artworks using just the objects and people available in their homes. Some of the internet's most impressive efforts have now been published in the book, "Off the Walls: Inspired Re-Creations of Iconic Artworks."