The Huntington Library is a nonprofit institution founded in 1919 by railroad and real estate developer Henry Edwards Huntington and opened to the public in 1928. It is a research and education center on 120 acres of gardens with three art galleries, a library and botanical gardens.
The libraries rare books and manuscripts constitute one of the world’s largest and most extensively used collections in America outside of the Library of Congress. We saw one of the remaining Gutenberg Bible, manuscripts by Jack London and Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales and much, much more. There was just sooooo much to take in.
The art collections are distinguished by their specialized character and elegant settings in three separate galleries. The Main Gallery contains one of the finest collections of full-length 18th-century British portraits to be found outside of Britain, and provides an unrivaled opportunity to study British art. Masterpieces include works by such artists as Constable, Romney, Reynolds, Van Dyck, and Turner, as well as the Blue Boy by Gainsborough and Pinkie by Lawrence. I wish I had room to include all paintings and sculptures I took pictures of here.
The botanical gardens are divided into more than a dozen thematic areas on 120 acres and include more than 15,000 different species of plants from all over the world. We visited the Japanese Garden and the Chinese Garden.
The 3 main elements of a Japanese garden are water, rocks, and plants. All gardens have each of these or the symbol or illusion of each such as a water basin instead of a pond or a dry gravel stream bed.
The Chinese Garden combines the beauty of nature with the expressiveness of literature to give deeper meaning to the landscape. We wandered through the traditional Suzhou-style garden, featuring a 1.4 acre lake bordered by craggy Tai Hu limestone rocks. There were seven pavilions, a canyon waterfall and five hand-carved stone bridges set against a wooded backdrop of camellias, bamboo and plum trees, that were just starting to blossom at the time we were there.
The two were distinctly different and yet peaceful and thought provoking in their own ways.
We went with another couple from our group Dick and Lillian from Hillsboro Oregon and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
This made me think of something funny. Many years ago, a friend and I were touring Europe. I believe we were in the Louvre Museum. We had seen the Mona Lisa and were looking at some other famous paintings (which we knew little about) when my friend ask a museum worker where the Blue Boy of Gainsborough was located. When he told us Huntington Beach, CA, we were very embarrassed as we were both living in Southern California and could easily have visited it. We hung our heads in shame.
ReplyDeleteAnd when we returned home, we never did go see it. Guess I need to wrote to my friend to see if she ever did get to Huntington Beach to the Blue Boy!
Glad you two are taking advantage of all the wonderful sites to be held in So. Calif. We lived there for years and never saw all that you have shown us. But, then, we were living and working there which puts a different perspective on the activities you choose.
Margie