Albrecht Durer in California

Last week my wife and I went to California to visit two of our daughters and to witness the Baptism of our sixteenth grandchild. One daughter lives near the magnificent Huntington Library in San Marino just outside of Pasadena. Whenever we visit we like to go to the Huntington for its beautiful setting, lovely gardens, and incredible collection. 

The Huntington was largely the work  of Henry Huntington, a wealthy railroad  magnate, and his wife Arabella. Actually, Arabella was first the wife of Henry’s uncle but after he passed away, Henry pursued the wealthy widow until she finally agreed to marry again. All three were avid collectors. 

Arabella Huntington, 1924

On entering the main gallery one is struck by a portrait of a very formidable Arabella done in 1924 the year of her death. At the time she was perhaps the richest woman in the world and  she must have accepted the portrait as a way of showing the world that she had not been a silly or frivolous woman. Despite her formidable aspect in old age, the portrait made me wonder what she might have been like as a young girl of about the same age as “Pinkie”, the young girl in one of the Huntington’s most prized possessions.

We went to the Huntington this visit to see a small exhibition devoted to some of Albrecht Durer’s most famous prints. A guard at the Museum told us that the Huntington had well over 100000 prints in its collection but none can be as remarkable as the Durer’s on display this summer. The exhibition is called Albrecht Durer: Master of the Black line.

The development of movable type and the printing press by Gutenberg coincided with a equally important development in the world of illustration. Engraving on wood, copper, or silver began about the same time as the printing press, and the new technique allowed works of illustration to be copied and reproduced with relative ease. Durer was not the first but by the time the Renaissance was in full swing, he had brought the art of engraving to a height that has never been equaled.

Durer: Vision of St. Eustace
click image to enlarge

Altogether there arte 33 prints in the Huntington exhibition four of the larger ones will give an idea of Durer’s mastery of his craft. St. Eustace venerating a cross appearing between the antlers of a stag, is featured in the Huntington’s online introduction to the exhibit. Durer depicts the legendary apparition with incredible detail. If interested, click on this link from the Clark Museum to see how an art historian examines the details and the meaning of this masterwork.   

Like most Renaissance greats, Durer worked mainly on religious subjects but used his inventiveness to bring out many levels of meaning. Three of his most famous engravings are also part of the exhibition and they are placed side by side for maximum effect. First is the mounted knight accompanied by Death and Satan. Scholars have noed that the Knight symbolizes the active Christian soldier. Second is St. Jerome working in his study. Jerome, a hermit as well as the translator of the Bible into Latin, symbolizes the contemplative life. Finally, a work that Durer himself entitled “Melencholia” represents the artist himself, a brooding sensitive genius. 

The image of the Knight accompanied by Death and Satan reminded me of a classic film by famed Swedish director, Ingmar Bergman. The film is "the Seventh Seal" and tells the story of a knight returning home after years on a Crusade only to find that Death wants him. He is only able to delay the inevitable by challenging Death to a game of Chess. Click on this link or see the brief video below. Like most Chess players Death cannot refuse a chance to play his favorite game.

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Huntington Library and Museum

                                              

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.

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.

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. ###