I GO TO THE HUNTINGTON

Above, a portrait by Ramsey from the Huntington Library in Pasadena. I just visited there and I thought you might like to see what I found. 

I'll start with the exterior, above. This was the house of 19th Century railroad tycoon, Henry Huntington. It's an art museum now. There's a few buildings like this on the estate and collectively they're called The Huntington Library. 

Outside are rambling gardens of different types. This one (above) is clearly patterned after pictures by Fragonard, though you can't get a sense of that from this photo. Wait a sec, let me grab another picture... 

Okay, there! That's (above) the kind of garden it was. And yes, there really are trees like that. 

The centerpiece of the gardens is a small valley containing a Japanese garden. I'm guessing that the gardens are more costly to maintain than the buildings.

Inside the house we get an insight into Huntington's personality by seeing what he chose to collect. Near the door, in a place of honor, is a portrait of James Watt, the inventor of the steam engine.  Good for Huntington! He made his fortune on steam power and he honors the man who made it possible.

The caption on the wall says that Watt's friends thought the likeness was striking, but they remembered him as being much more jovial than he appears here.

Also in a place of honor is this well-known portrait (above) of Samuel Johnson. I'm assuming that Huntington accessed Johnson mainly through Boswell's biography. Imagine that...a rough and tumble railroad guy who found Boswell's book to be useful and inspiring.

Here's (above) Mrs. Huntington. After her husband died she became the richest woman in the world. I was hoping her portrait would convey a haughty attitude,  a "Who let you in here? Did you wipe your feet?"-type expression but no,  she looks like she was a nice person.

The Huntington houses Gainsborough's "The Blue Boy." Gainsborough used to brag that he got his backgrounds from still lifes of broccoli and blankets.

The picture's much parodied in America and the boy's often portrayed as a fop. That's not really fair. The kid looks perfectly manly to me, he's just wearing an outrageous costume that that nobody at the time realized was outrageous. 

 

I wish I could remember whose bust this was. We both have the Fitzgerald nose.

Ouch!

Boy, there sure are a lot of naked people here.

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P.S. I just received a comment from K. Marinov on the 7/30/12 post, CAVES IN THE CLOUDS. Marinov sez:

I was doing a Google image search for "cloud caverns" because I flew through one on March 7, 2008, but was too awestruck to reach for my cell camera (that wouldn't have done it any justice anyway). These paintings are all that I could find.

The cloud cavern I saw was on a flight from Odessa, TX to Houston, TX in the pre-dawn hours. I could see daybreak beginning in the horizon and we started flying through some clouds. A short while later, sun not up yet, we flew into a cloud cavern. I saw pillars, mountains, valleys, ceilings, and plateaus very similar to these images.

It was a dark blue/gray hue since the sun hadn't risen yet. But then, the sun rose...

ORANGE! YELLOW! PINK! RED! I WAS IN HEAVEN! I was just awestruck. I hadn't EVER seen anything like that and I now consider my life complete to have seen such a sight. Thank you for posting these pics!