Lunch and a stroll at Huntington

'twas a beautiful day to give thanks for our many gifts at the Huntington gardens and museums.

"The Last Gleanings" 1895 by Breton (French 1827-1906)
Breton, Courbet, and Millet lived in the town of Barbizon and created a special school of painters that focused on social realism in art.  They painted peasant life in the country using tonal qualities, color, loose brushwork and softness of form.

"Vesuvius from Portici" 1774-76 by Joseph Wright of Derby, (British, 1734-1797)
The world was very interested the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius that occurred in 79 AD as the Italians had begun to excavate the buried towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

"The Blue Boy" 1770 by Thomas Gainsborough (British, 1727-1788)
Gainsborough painted this just to prove that he could paint like Anthony van Dyck, the 17th century Flemish painter.  The painting became famous when Huntington purchased it for $700,000 in 1921, the largest amount of money ever for a painting up to that time.  The likeness has been copied and even placed on chocolates.

"Pinkie" Sarah Goodin Barrett Moultoni, 1794 by Thomas Lawrence (British, 1760-`1830)
The painting was commissioned by Judith Barrett of her 11 year old granddaughter who she missed seeing.  The girl was called "Pinkie" was raised in the British colony of Jamaica before being sent to England for schooling.  The grandmother asked that "Pinkie" be shown "in an easy, careless attitude."
"Pinkie" died a few months after the painting was completed perhaps of T.B.

On the second floor of the mansion museum, the works of sculptor Ricky Swallow and his wife Lesley Vances' paintings are displayed.  The paintings are oil on linnen.

By Leslie Vance

"Retired Instruments" by Ricky Swallow

"Ann and Mary Constable:  The Artist's Sisters" 1818 by John Constable (British, 1776-1837
Mary on the right with the pensive expression and red riding hood is a contrast to her older sister Ann who is more serious and dressed starkly in a masculine riding habit.

By Lesley Vance

"Girls Surprised Bathing by Moonlight" 1840 by Joseph Mallord William Turner (British, 1774-1851)
The painting is divided by a sudden burst of moonlight in the night sky in the Bay of Naples.  Turner paints an eruption of Vesuvius in the background while a fire started by hot ashes burns in the right foreground.

"The Grand Canal Scene - A Street in Venice"1837 by Turner.
A city of light and water, Venice enabled Turner to indulge his fascination with brilliant effects of color and light.