Timken Museum of Art

Address:1500 El Prado
San Diego, California
Tel: (619) 239-5548

In the heart of San Diego's beautiful Balboa Park, the Timken Museum of Art houses world-class collections from European old masters, American art, and Russian icons. Since 1965, the Putnam sisters' collection has been on display. The sisters spent decades acquiring art in Europe and around the world before this lovely museum opened its doors. The collection spans nearly 600 years of art history.

The museum's collection ranges from 13th-century altarpieces through 18th-century portraits, to 19th-century still lifes, representing Dutch, Flemish, French and Italian painters including Rembrandt, Rubens, Petrus Christus, Fragonard, Jacques-Louis David and Veronese, as well as American artists such as John Singleton Copley and Eastman Johnson.

Russian icons from the Moscow and Novgorad schools, the oldest dating to the 15th-century, are on view in a special gallery. A late bronze sculpture of Mercury by the famed sculptor Giambologna graces the center of the rotunda, adorned with French 17th-century tapestries.

Special exhibitions at the Timken Museum of Art are shown regularly. One such exhibition is "Drawn to Rome: French Neoclassical Sketchbooks and Prints" which heighten the allure of Rome as we get a glance into the artists' view of the world as they wandered around Roman ruins, sculptures, and paintings.

To reach the Timken Museum of Art from I-5: Exit at Sassafras Street (also the Airport exit). You will exit onto Kettner Boulevard. Continue south on Kettner about 1 mile, take a left on Laurel Street (get into the far right lane when you turn left), and go up the steep hill. Laurel Street turns into El Prado, which will take you into Balboa Park. Coming from I-63 South, exit at University Avenue, go through the light at University and proceed about 1/2 mile to El Prado. Take a left on El Prado and follow the signs to parking. Admission to the Timken Museum of Art is free and tours are available also free of charge.