The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens

The Huntington Library’s collection of rare books and manuscripts in the fields of British and American history and literature is nothing short of extraordinary.

The Art Collections are distinguished by their specialized character and elegant settings in three separate galleries on the Huntington grounds. A fourth space, the MaryLou and George Boone Gallery, hosts changing exhibitions. The Huntington Art Gallery, originally the Huntington residence, contains one of the most comprehensive collections in this country of 18th- and 19th-century British and French art. It serves as home to Gainsborough’s Blue Boy and Lawrence’s Pinkie.

The Botanical Gardens are an ever-changing exhibition of color and a constant delight. Covering 120 acres, more than a dozen specialized gardens are arranged within a park-like landscape of rolling lawns.

Current exhibitions include:

Central Avenue and Beyond: The Harlem Renaissance in Los Angeles: During the 1920s and 1930s, African American arts and culture flowered throughout the United States. African Americans found new ways to explore black history, thought, culture, and arts in urban centers nationwide. Much of the activity of this movement took place in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, and its flourishing there became known as the Harlem Renaissance. Library, West Hall through February 8, 2010.

The Color Explosion: Nineteenth Century American Lithography from the Jay T. Last Collection: When a young German playwright named Alois Senefelder developed a new printmaking process in the 1790s, little did he know that his discovery would start a communication revolution. Lithography, or flat-surface printing, transformed the exchange of information and the behavior of everyday life for the next century and beyond. This technique brought art, literature, music, and science to the masses; gave rise to product advertising and consumer culture; educated a growing middle class; and turned commercial printing from a craft into an industry. Lithography also colorized a predominantly black-and-white print world. Boone Gallery through February 22, 2010

Drawn to Satire: John Sloan’s Illustrations for the Novels of Charles Paul de Kock: From 1903 to 1905, American artist John Sloan created 53 etchings to illustrate comic novels by French author Charles Paul de Kock. The books—satires of French society in the first half of the 19th century, full of slapstick violence—were a perfect subject for Sloan’s lively etching style of short, expressive lines and loose cross-hatching. The project also seemed to inspire Sloan to look at 20th-century New Yorkers with the same satirical eye that de Kock trained on Parisians of the previous century. In the years that followed, Sloan produced a number of etchings featuring humorous vignettes of life in the busy metropolis. A selection of Sloan’s etchings as well as related prints, drawings, and books will be on view, inviting close study of Sloan’s working methods as he was becoming a prominent member of the band of urban realists known as the Ashcan school. Scott Galleries, Chandler Wing through March 29, 2010.

The Golden Age in the Golden State: Dutch and Flemish Prints and Drawings from the Huntington and Crocker Collections: During the 17th century, a period known as the Golden Age witnessed a great increase in artistic activity in the Netherlands. Over nearly a century of struggle—culminating in the Treaty of Westphalia of 1648—the Protestant Dutch in the north won their independence from Catholic Spain. As the new Dutch Republic became more prosperous, its art market grew. Also at this time, Jesuits in the southern Netherlands (or Flanders) were building churches and commissioning art in an attempt to confirm the faith of Catholics. Both situations greatly influenced the political and economic life of the region, and art flourished. This intimate installation of 15 important works on paper displays biblical, mythological, and genre subjects by such masters as Hendrick Goltzius (1558–1617), Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669), and Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640). Huntington Art Gallery, Works on Paper Room through March 29, 2010.

The Huntington Library.
1151 Oxford Road, San Marino. (626) 405-2100.  Website: www.huntington.org
Open: Tuesdays through Sundays from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.  Cost: Admission:  $15 adults, $11 seniors, $10 students (ages 12-18), $6 youth (ages 5-11), free for children under 5.  Members are admitted free.