On a recent trip to California my
wife and I were able to visit the magnificent Huntington Library located in the
posh little town of San Marino just outside of Pasadena. The library and the
surrounding grounds were originally the home of railroad magnate Henry
Huntington. After his death in the 1920s the home and its extensive collection
of European and American art were
turned into the incredibly beautiful museum.
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| Huntington Library and Museum San Marino, CA |
The collection is so large that it
takes at least four buildings to display only a portion. But what a portion! In
the building devoted to European art there is a room dedicated to some
exquisite Renaissance Madonnas, as well as a splendid collection of French eighteenth century art, but the centerpiece
of the Huntington is the magnificent collection of British eighteenth century portraiture.
This collection is mainly found in
a great room covered with beautiful full-length portraits of beautiful men and
women. Pride of place goes to Thomas Gainsborough’s famed “Blue Boy” which was
purchased by Huntington from famed dealer Joseph Duveen in the early 1920s for
the then record breaking price of $700000. Everyone knows the painting but hung
as it is in the place of honor in the midst of all these beautiful paintings,
it takes your breath away.
Equally striking is Thomas
Lawrence’s “Pinkie” a portrait of an 11-year-old girl standing in a
cloud-backed landscape. The portrait of Pinkie was ordered by her grandmother,
and Lawrence was able to capture the budding loveliness and gaiety of this
young girl. Sadly, Pinkie died of
tuberculosis shortly after the painting was completed. Nevertheless, the painting holds its
own today hung as it is directly opposite the “Blue Boy” at the other end of
the great room.
In between are paintings of the “beautiful” people of
eighteenth century England during the era of the American Revolution, an event
of whose significance most were probably unaware. I was interested in these paintings
not only for their beauty but also because some of the people depicted were
friends and associates of the subject of my doctoral dissertation of long ago,
General Henry Seymour Conway. Conway was a soldier and a politician who rose to
great prominence during the era of the American Revolution, and some of the
people depicted in the Huntington library collection were associated with him.
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| Georgiana Spencer, Duchess of Devonshire by Sir Joshua Reynolds |
For example, there is Georgiana
Spencer, a distant relation of Princess Di, who would marry into the wealthy Cavendish family and become Duchess of
Devonshire. For a while during her short life she was the reigning queen of
London high society. General Conway was a close associate of the Cavendish
family and a number of Dukes of Devonshire. Incidentally, two centuries later, Fred Astaire’s sister and original dancing partner, Adele, would marry another
Duke of Devonshire.
The Huntington Library sits in the
midst of beautiful grounds and fabulous botanical gardens. We went upstairs and
happened to look out a window to behold a landscape more spectacular than
anything in the paintings. Even down below sitting near the children’s garden,
we could behold the striking San Gabriel Mountains acting like a frame for the
whole scene.
By that time our four and a half
year old granddaughter was getting a little tired but earlier she had gone
through the picture gallery with great enthusiasm. She took innumerable
pictures with her digital camera. Looking at Pinkie and the other beautiful
ladies in their stunning gowns, at one point she exclaimed, “this is glorious!”
We visited the day after Thanksgiving
and the large parking lot was practically full. Nevertheless, the grounds are
so large and the collections so designed that we never had the feeling that you
get in so many museums of being crowded, rushed, and jostled. The Huntington
Library is one of America’s great museums, and anyone visiting in the Los
Angeles area should not miss it. ###
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