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GETTY SELLS GIRAUDON TO BRIDGEMAN
April 24, 2001
The Bridgeman Art Library has acquired Giraudon, the prestigious French fine art picture
archive from Getty Images, Inc. This acquisition further strengthens the Bridgeman Art
Library's position as the world's leading source of fine art images.
Founded in 1887, Giraudon is the prestigious French picture archive dealing specifically in
fine art, history, architecture and archaeology.
By merging the Giraudon collection with its own, the Bridgeman Art
Library will provide image-users with a central art resource
unrivalled by any other agency. To reflect the great value of the
Giraudon brand, the Paris offices of the Bridgeman Art Library and
Giraudon will be combined, re-named Giraudon-Bridgeman and will move to new premises in
Summer 2001.
Director Harriet Bridgeman said today: "This is a milestone in the
Bridgeman Art Library's mission to make the best of the world's art accessible for every
image user. After many years of working with
Giraudon as agents, we are delighted to join forces to give this
magnificent collection a global platform."
The Giraudon archive was one of Visual Communication Group's (VCG) brands when Getty
purchased VCG about a year ago.
Giraudon contains images from thousands of collections depicting the art and culture of
every continent. French art features strongly and highlights include Impressionist works
from the Muse Marmottan-Monet, Paris, and images from the Musée Condé, Chantilly which is
also home to the famous manuscripts 'Les Trés Riches Heures du duc de Berry'. Key French
collections are also represented such as the Bonora collection of Asian art.
Under the ownership of Editions Larousse from 1953 to 1991, Giraudon acquired a vast number
of historical engravings, book illustrations and fine examples of French master
photography. Of special interest are the De Gaulle Archives, Dornac's portraits of famous
French writers and Moreau's poignant photographs of the First World War. Each image in the
archive has been expertly catalogued and will be accessible to both the specialist
researcher and to image users with little or no art knowledge.
The Bridgeman Art Library is the world's leading source of fine art
images. Founded by Harriet Bridgeman in 1972, it has grown to cover
every subject, style and era from cave paintings to the masterpieces of the Renaissance,
and on to contemporary art. Museums represented include such renowned names as the British
Museum and the British Library, the National Galleries of Scotland, Sweden and South
Africa, the Kunsthalle, Hamburg and major collections in France and Italy.
In the last few years a number of notable American collections have joined the Bridgeman
Art Library including the Harvard Art Museums, Yale Center for British Art, the museums of
Detroit, Houston and Phoenix together with the renowned Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia.
Hundreds of new images are catalogued every week and thousands of further images are
available through the Library's global network of picture agencies.
The Library also acts as copyright agent to a growing number of artists and artists'
estates, greatly simplifying the licensing process for image users. It has offices in
London, New York and Paris and can also be reached through www.bridgeman.co.uk.