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| Annibale Carracci, Study of a Tree, about 1600. J. Paul Getty Museum |
The Getty Museum bought six European drawings from the Feb. 4, 2026,
auction of the Diane A. Nixon collection at Sotheby's, New York. Nixon, a former model for Emilio Pucci, was a trustee of the Morgan Library & Museum and vice-president of the non-profit publishing
Master Drawings. Nixon's collection has had a considerable mystique since it was shown anonymously at the Morgan and the National Gallery of Art in 2007.
The Getty bought the sale's second most expensive lot, an Annibale Carracci ink and black chalk
Study of a Tree that went for $863,600. (Most expensive was
a Mattia Preti that soared to $1.76 million, nearly six times the high estimate.) Getty curator Julian Brooks'
post on the auction says that they were outbid on several drawings.
Almost 16 inches high, the Carracci exemplifies the artist's empirical approach to nature. It's one of several Carracci drawings of trees, trunks, and roots that have been likened to portraits rather than compositional studies.
The Getty also secured sheets from the Nixon sale by Baccio Bandinelli ($228,600), Domenico Campagnola ($152,400), John Linnell, Edward Burne-Jones, and Odilon Redon. Several will appear in the Getty Center's space for new drawing acquisitions starting June 30.
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| Domenico Campagnola, Landscape with Fortified City and Rising Sun, about 1516–1517 |
Domenico Campagnola was trained as a printmaker. This early ink drawing shows the influence of Dürer in Venice.  |
| Baccio Bandinelli, The Descent from the Cross, about 1528-1529 |
A large, finished sheet by Baccio Bandinelli is the only known study for a bronze relief presented to Emperor Charles V in 1529. Praised by Vasari, the bronze is now lost.
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| John Linnell, A Farmhouse at Shoreham, about 1830. Purchased with funds provided by the Disegno Group |
John Linnell was a repeat visitor to Samuel Palmer's home in Shoreham. Until recently,
A Farmhouse at Shoreham was assigned to Palmer.
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| Edward Burne-Jones, Phineas and His Courtiers Turned into Stone, about 1876–1878 |
Phineus and His Courtiers Turned into Stone is one of many preparatory studies for the music room of future British Prime Minister Arthur Balfour. Burne-Jones worked on the mural project for over a decade, leaving it unfinished. Barely visible at left is the white chalk outline of Perseus brandishing the head of Medusa. The 25-9/16-in-wide sheet uses blue watercolor, brown ink, and white gouache to model figures turned to stone.
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| Odilon Redon, Head of a Young Girl in Profile, 1895 |
Head of a Young Girl documents Redon's infatuation with the Pre-Raphaelites, dating to the 1889 exhibition in Paris of Burne-Jones'
King Cophetua and the Beggar-Maid. The red chalk medium stands between Redon's
noirs and later works in pastel and oil.
Redon sold
Head of a Young Girl to Baron Robert de Domecy, who commissioned
the pastel portrait of his wife in the Getty collection. All the Getty's works by Redon will go on view this summer in "Odilon Redon: Otherworldly Visions," at the Getty Center July 14–Oct, 18.
Comments
The stunning Mattia Preti double-sided sheet, that got away, was stunningly expensive, and exactly something like what Getty should be pursuing. Getty's loss is grave.
The two near-full-length portraits of Preti's heroic Knights of Malta are the likes Getty may never get to buy again.
--- J. Garcin
I'm thinking Balthus.
I wonder if Getty was the underbidder. If yes, to me, that's all the more sad.
... There are artists who have painted two of them. Here I am thinking of Durer's Adam and Eve (tree and cat) and Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights (tree and cat). In both, the cat/tree are situated in Paradise.
It's curious that cat and tree are together at the beginning. At the other existential extreme, bed/cock are associated with death. See Munch's Between the Clock and the Bed.
--- J. Garcin
According to the Sotheby's catalog, "Fortescue, a cousin of Anne Boleyn, was a favourite of Henry VIII, but was executed in 1539 when refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy."
The artist's treatment of his subjects is extraordinarily well drawn.