Timken Museum of Artwork: Highlights, Tickets & Ideas

Established in 1965, the Timken Museum of Artwork accommodates beneficial works, together with European outdated masters, American artwork, and Russian icons.
Founding director Walter Ames established the museum to accommodate the non-public assortment of heiresses Amy and Anne Putnam. It’s in a chief location inside Balboa Park, certainly one of Southern California’s most stunning parks, subsequent to the San Diego Museum of Artwork and the Botanical Constructing.
Its white, marble, and bronze exterior structure is one thing to admire additionally earlier than you stroll into this free attraction. However you must step inside to see the one Rembrandt in San Diego, Saint Bartholomew.
5 Highlights to See

Listed below are some highlights of the Timken Museum of Artwork:
- Rembrandt van Rijin, Saint Bartholomew (1657): This putting portray of Saint Bartholomew, one of many twelve apostles holding a butcher knife (symbolic of his martyrdom), actually ought to be seen in individual.
- Luca Carlevarijs, The Piazzetta at Venice (1700-10): As a traveler, I respect that this scene of Venice is essentially the identical right now.
- Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Parable of the Sower (1557): An attractive interpretation of the Biblical parable of the sower by one of many biggest Flemish painters of the sixteenth century. I like the colours.
- Francois Boucher, Lovers in a Park (1758): Boucher was the favourite artist of Louis XV’s mistress Madame de Pompadour, and this fashion of artwork is related to the king’s reign.
- Russian Icons: Timken’s assortment fills a small room. Every Russian icon tells a narrative of religion, a holy individual or an occasion, painted on a picket panel in step with the beliefs and requirements of the Orthodox Church.
Issues to Know Earlier than Visiting the Timken Museum of Artwork
There are a number of necessary issues to remember earlier than visiting the Timken Museum of Artwork. These embrace the next.
Donation-BAsed Admission & Hours
The Timken Museum of Artwork is open from 10 a.m. to five p.m. from Wednesday to Sunday. The museum often closes for particular occasions, so regulate the web site to make sure you can enter.
The museum is exclusive in not requiring cost or tickets to enter. Donations are accepted in any quantity that company really feel is acceptable. The advisable quantity is $7.
The museum additionally presents memberships for frequent company, which grants you 20% off on the present store, amongst different privileges.
Obtain The App
Timken has a fantastic telephone app that will help you study extra about every portray. The app has an intuitive interface and a built-in scavenger hunt for the youngsters!
Deliver a pair of earbuds in an effort to hearken to the excursions as you stroll across the museum.
Free Guided Excursions
Teams of adults and college teams can schedule free docent-guided excursions of the museum that final 45-60 minutes.
Visiting with Youngsters
After all, accompanied children are welcome. As a result of it’s a small museum, you will need to examine empty strollers and backpack carriers on the entrance desk. Strollers in use and entrance child carriers are okay.
You’ll have to be positive you carry your purse in entrance of you as properly, not in your hip or your again.
Meals and Drinks
Preserve all meals and drinks sealed and hid in your bag, or depart them on the entrance desk.
Though the museum doesn’t have an eatery, you will discover many eating places and cafes in Balboa Park. Panama 66 (certainly one of our favorites) is simply throughout the courtyard from the museum.
Reward Store
The small present space on the entrance of the museum. You could find distinctive handmade gadgets, refined jewellery, and books on artwork and structure. All proceeds from the present store straight help the museum. The present store typically options one-of-a-kind presents through the holidays.
Parking
It’s free to park within the Balboa Park parking tons, and a tram circles via a few of them to shorten the stroll to and out of your automobile.
The closest tons are south of the Timken Museum, adjoining to the Worldwide Homes, San Diego Air & House Museum. The Alcazar Lot might be the closest, however another close by tons will do.
Enjoyable Information Concerning the Timken Museum of Artwork
The Timken Museum of Artwork has an attention-grabbing historical past that even residents could not find out about.

Look out for docents who share tidbits of fascinating information concerning the assortment.
1. It Stands on a Historic Website
The constructing’s previous makes it a big cultural landmark.
The Timken Museum stands on the historic website of the previous Home Economy Building. Constructed in 1915 for the Panama-California Exposition, the constructing stood in Balboa Park and served a number of makes use of till its demise in 1962.
2. Henry Timken Was a Hero
Henry Timken, who helped fund the museum, was a German immigrant and a Nineteenth-century inventor and entrepreneur.
Lengthy story quick, he patented a tapered curler bearing for carriages that enabled wheels to show with much less friction. His invention rocked the transportation market, and by 1923, a whopping ninety % of the nation’s curler bearings got here from his firm.
The Timken Museum was certainly one of many philanthropic endeavors that Henry Timken funded, and his legacy lives on via this cultural gem.
3. It’s Comprised of The Putnam Assortment
Timken Museum’s artwork assortment is usually due to the work acquired by sisters Amy and Anne Putnam and, subsequently, their basis. Nonetheless, this was solely the final gesture in a protracted legacy of nameless donations.
The sisters donated artworks to the San Diego Museum of Artwork all through the Nineteen Forties and different outstanding museums nationwide. In reality, the Timken Museum of Artwork was established to convey items to San Diego that had been on mortgage overseas.
4. You Can Attend Neat Occasions
I’m an enormous fan of checking museum calendars to see what’s on faucet. Throughout my final go to to the Timken, you can join a flower arranging class (which has since offered out resulting from excessive demand).
You can even join digital talks and excursions.
5. The Museum Provides Again
Timken is concerned in lots of native charitable causes. The museum presents artwork lessons to girls and boys incarcerated in juvenile detention.
It additionally works with veterans therapeutic from psychological and bodily accidents on the VA San Diego Healthcare System.
Why We Love the Timken Museum of Artwork

Balboa Park is on the coronary heart of San Diego’s cultural hub, and it’s so, really easy to step into the Timken Museum of Artwork for slightly bit to see some really particular work. It’s subsequent door to the San Diego Museum of Artwork and adjoining to the Botanical Constructing and Lily Pond.
The app offers perception into every portray that provides super worth to your expertise. You’ll positively study one thing new.
And, sure, it’s small however why not step inside? It’s free to enter.