San Diego Museum of Art – Virtual Tour

The San Diego Museum of Art houses a broad art collection with particular strength in Spanish art. The Museum first opened as The Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego in 1926 and changed its name to its current form in 1978.

The museum building was designed in a plateresque style to harmonize with existing structures, in Balboa Park, from the Panama–California Exposition of 1915.

The dominant feature of the façade is a heavily ornamented door inspired by a doorway at the University of Salamanca in Spain.

The Cathedral of Valladolid, in Spain, also influenced the Museum’s exterior design, and the interior motifs are derived from the Santa Cruz Hospital of Toledo, Spain.

In 1966 the Museum added a west wing and a sculpture court and an east wing in 1974. The San Diego Museum of Art is regarded as

“the region’s oldest and largest art museum.”

The Museum’s collections range in date from 5000 BC to the modern era. The Museum’s Spanish works include artwork by Murillo, Zurbarán, Cotán, Ribera, and El Greco.

The Museum also houses work by the Italian masters Giorgione, Giotto, Veronese, and Canaletto. Works by Rubens, Hals, and Van Dyck represent the Northern European School.

Façade of the San Diego Museum of Art

Highlights of the San Diego Museum of Art

Workshop of Hieronymus Bosch, The Arrest of Christ, 1515
Simon Vouet, c. 1635, Aeneas and his Father Fleeing Troy
Giambattista Pittoni, 1730, The Vision of Saint Anthony of Padua
Francisco Goya’s El Marques de Sofraga
Diego Velázquez portrait of the Infanta Margarita of Spain
William Merritt Chase, 1895, An Afternoon Stroll
Auguste Renoir, 1907, Woman Combing her Hair
Joaquin Sorolla, 1907, María en La Granja
Henri Matisse, 1918, Fleurs (Bouguet)

Canaletto at the San Diego Museum of Art