On view November 23, 2021, to February 20, 2022, La Surprise: Watteau in Los Angeles brings together a dozen paintings and drawings from public and private collections in celebration of a recent Getty painting acquisition, La Surprise. 

“Los Angeles is well known as a center for collections of contemporary art. Somewhat surprising, however, is the fact that the city is also home to an extraordinary group of works by Watteau,” explains Timothy Potts, Maria Hummer-Tuttle and Robert Tuttle Director of the J. Paul Getty Museum. “The three-hundredth anniversary of his death affords us an opportunity to showcase some of the artist’s most distinguished drawings and paintings from local public and private collections, including our new acquisition of La Surprise. This will be the first exhibition on the West Coast to showcase this supremely innovative and enchanting artist, who was celebrated as the preeminent master of early 18th-century French painting.”