TAKING IT ALL IN
Gallery visitors frequently are tempted to draw close to a painting—or as close as a security guard will allow. Perhaps they suspect an inadvertent slip in a brushstroke, or maybe they want to marvel at the realistic depiction of sunlight in a morning or late-afternoon scene. The cover photo of this issue is an invitation to readers to come close to the edge of a particular painting—in this case, to the fine detail of an authentic reconstruction of a 19th-century frame for Frederic Edwin Church’s Chimborazo (1864).
In “Framed Again,” Traude Gomez-Rhine tells the story of how artisans and Huntington curators worked together to replace a frame that had been lost to history. The newly adorned painting is on display in the Boone Gallery through Jan. 3, 2007, accompanying the exhibition “Treasures from Olana: Landscapes by Frederic Edwin Church.” It will return to the Scott Gallery after the close of the show.
This issue of Huntington Frontiers features other visual works that invite scrutiny. Dan Lewis, the Dibner Senior Curator of the History of Science & Technology, explores the differences between two versions of John James Audubon’s Birds of America: the original edition of 435 copperplate engravings and a later edition of 105 chromolithographic prints. Curator of Photographs Jennifer Watts ponders two different prints of an iconic Ansel Adams photo and scholar Lori Anne Ferrell explains how thousands of engravings in the Kitto Bible can enhance readers’ interpretation of Scripture.
But as often as gallery visitors lean into paintings, they also step back to take in the works of art in their entirety. Watts explains that Adams did something like this himself when he followed his intimate Monolith with a much larger version that could be seen from across the room. While it’s fascinating to isolate the primary colors that are the stock-in-trade of a chromolithographer’s workshop, the true pleasure of viewing Birds of America comes in seeing the lifelike prints after the various inks have all come together. The Chimborazo frame, while captivating in close detail, should ultimately be seen at a safe distance that allows the viewer to take in the landscape painting as the artist intended.
MATT STEVENS
_____________________________________________________
© 2006 Huntington Library. All rights reserved.
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens
1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, CA 91108
626-405-2100
Contact us