Roaming through the Huntington Gardens and Galleries on January 6th

It was a beautiful day for lunch in the gardens and a stroll around this amazing place.  I roamed through the American Art gallery and enjoyed a few favorites and found a couple of new acquisitions.  They also had an exhibit on Junipero Serra and the California missions that was on view for the last day. 

San Gabriel Mission

Carmel Mission 1875 by Jules Tavernier, oil on canvas

Coleslaw anyone?

"The Long Leg" 1930 by Edward Hopper 1882-1967
This beautiful painting is also one of isolation, melancholy and loneliness.  The sail boat near Long Point Light at Provincetown, Massachusetts is sailing against the wind by zigzagging, short and long tacks, or legs. 
No people are visible on the boat or on the shore.  Hopper is considered an American Realist but the mood of isolation reflects the spirit of Modernism.

This new acquisition is entitled " Breaker Boys" 1925 by George Luks, 1867-1933 is an oil on canvas.

"Portrait of Laura (Laura Bellows Mouett) 1915 by George Wesley Bellows, 1882-1925.  The description of the painting says that Bellows was Fauvism, Cubism and Futurism into the painting with "bold, almost jarring, juxtaposition of color." Bellows was a member of the "Ashean School" and previously had gained success with paintings of boxing  and other sports.  His last paintings were of a more personal nature.  He died at age 43.

The final exhibit I visited was in the Boone Gallery.  It is entitled "Face to Face Flanders, Florence, and Renaissance Painting."  The 35 works from the Huntington Collection and from around the world demonstrate the strong artists connection that Flanders artists had on Florence artists.  Flanders was a country that is now a part of Belgium.  It was a major banking center including a branch of the Medici Bank from Florence, Italy.  Both cities had citizens of great wealth who kept artists busy with painting or sculpting their portraits or works for their churches and palaces.  Here are a couple of examples:



This is a portrait diptych - a devotional image paired with a portrait of the owner on two hinged panels.  Members of the ruling elite in Flanders used diptychs to promote their private devotion.  These are painted by Rogier van der Weyden (1400-1464).  The the left is "Virgin and Child" 1460 and on the right is "Portrait of Philippe de Croy," 1460.  The right painting belongs to a museum in Antwerp, Belgium the former capitol of Flanders and home of Peter Paul Rubens which I visited in 1964.  The left painting belongs to the Huntington.