May 11, 2023

Collection Spotlight: Seattle Art Museum

Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast, 1870 (Oil on canvas), Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902)
/ Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, USA / Seattle Art Museum / Bridgeman Images

We are excited and pleased to announce that the world-class collections of the Seattle Art Museum and its associated museums are now represented in the Bridgeman Images archive. Since 1933, SAM has been the centre for world-class visual arts in the Pacific Northwest. SAM prides itself on being as much a part of the city’s landscape and personality as its coffee, rain, mountains, space needle and pike place market.

Virgin and Child with Saints Paul and Peter, 1310-20 (Egg tempera and gold on wood),
Pietro Lorenzetti (c.1284-after 1345) / Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, USA
/ Seattle Art Museum / Samuel H. Kress Collection / Bridgeman Images

‘Our three distinct locations celebrate the region's position as a crossroads where east meets west, urban meets natural, local meets global. Our collections, installations, special exhibitions, and programs feature art from around the world and build bridges between cultures and centuries.’​

Crows, early 17th century (Pair of six panel screens; ink and gold on paper),
Japanese School, (17th century) / Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, USA /
Seattle Art Museum / Eugene Fuller Memorial Collection / Bridgeman Images

The Seattle Art Museum is proud of its heritage and history, with a detailed timeline available on its website. SAM acknowledges that it is located on the ancestral land of the Coast Salish people, and note that their native American galleries and exceptional collection of Australian aboriginal art are two of their most popular assets. Their collections include Asian, African, Ancient American, Ancient Mediterranean, Islamic, European, Oceanic, Asian, American, modern and contemporary art, and decorative arts and design. 

Venus and Adonis, 1570s (Oil on canvas), Veronese, (Paolo Caliari) (1528-88)
/ Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, USA / Seattle Art Museum / Samuel H. Kress Collection
/ Bridgeman Images

In 2007, the SAM was renovated with a striking expansion doubling its exhibition space. The expansion was designed to highlight the art within and create a center of creative expression and energy in downtown Seattle. Its elegant stainless steel façade responds to its urban surroundings, the light and the landscape of the Pacific Northwest, while spacious interiors provide an inviting environment for the experience of art. ​

 Hagar and the Angel, c. 1630 (Oil on canvas), Bernado Strozzi (1581-1644)
/ Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, USA / Seattle Art Museum /
Samuel H. Kress Collection / Bridgeman Images

In conjunction with the opening of the expansion​ and SAM’s 75th anniversary in 2008, the museum has also received an unprecedented series of gifts from prominent museum patrons and collectors. The gifts—nearly 1,000 works from more than 40 collections—significantly enhance SAM’s holdings and reinforce the museum’s dedication to artistic excellence. In a remarkable show of support, entire collections by some of the Northwest’s leading collectors have been committed over time, creating the largest gift in the museum’s history.​

Relief with Ptolemy II making an offering to a god, 285-246 B.C. (Granite), Egyptian
(3rd century BC) / Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, USA / Seattle Art Museum /
Eugene Fuller Memorial Collection / Bridgeman Images

We have only touched on the collection in this article – discover all our current Seattle Art Museum images here, with more being added daily.

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