Permanent Exhibitions
Library Exhibition Hall
“Treasures of the Huntington Library” on View in the Scott Galleries While Library Exhibition Hall Undergoes RedesignThe Library’s Main Exhibition Hall closed June 4, 2012, for a major renovation, and will remain closed until fall 2013.
The “permanent” installation of rare books and manuscripts normally displayed there, including Chaucer, Shakespeare, Audubon, and other well-loved works, may be viewed now in their temporary home in the Scott Galleries, where they will remain on view until May 27 (Memorial Day).
More about the Exhibition Hall renovation project
Once
the house of Henry E. Huntington (1850–1927) and his second wife,
Arabella (1850–1924), the
Huntington Art Gallery opened in 1928
displaying what was then the greatest collection of 18th-century
British art in the country, including the celebrated Blue Boy by Thomas
Gainsborough and Pinkie by Thomas Lawrence. Since then the collections
have grown enormously and now contain many great works of art of the
Italian, French and Netherlandish schools, as well as a much broader
range of British art and design from the 17th to the early 20th century.
After
a $20 million renovation, the gallery offers visitors an enhanced
experience with one of the finest collections of European art in the
nation as well as a more accurate sense of the lifestyle of one of the
most prominent millionaires of the early 20th century. In addition to a
thoroughly updated infrastructure, the refurbished mansion includes
5,300 additional square feet of public space, new interpretive
components, and new gallery presentations of approximately 1,200
objects of European art from the 15th to the early 20th century.
MORE
The Huntington's Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art reveal a completely transformed space in which the growing American art collection is displayed in an area twice its previous size. The newly redesigned galleries treat visitors to 16,000 square feet of thoughtfully grouped, chronologically organized displays representing the history of American painting, sculpture, and decorative art from the late 17th to the middle of the 20th century. Masterpieces from the collection, such as John Singleton Copley’s
The Western Brothers (1783), Mary Cassatt’s
Breakfast in Bed (1897), John Singer Sargent’s
Portrait of Pauline Astor (ca. 1898), and Edward Hopper’s
The Long Leg (ca. 1930), are complemented by key works on long-term loan as well as new acquisitions. The Huntington’s recent addition to the collection,
Zenobia in Chains (1859), a critically acclaimed monumental sculpture by Harriet Hosmer (1830–1908), is presented to the public for the first time in nearly a century.
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Dibner Hall of the History of Science
Located in the Library Exhibition Hall, "Beautiful Science: Ideas that Changed the World" showcases some
of science’s greatest achievements, from Ptolemy to Copernicus, Newton
to Einstein. The 2,800-square-foot Dibner Hall of the History of
Science comes as a result of the marriage of The Huntington’s history
of science materials with the Burndy Library, a 67,000-volume
collection of rare books and manuscripts donated to The Huntington in
2006 by the Dibner family of Connecticut. The exhibition highlights four areas of
exploration: astronomy, natural history, medicine, and light. A gallery
on each focuses on the changing role of science over time, particularly
the astonishing leaps in imagination made by scientists over the years
and the importance of written works in communicating those ideas. Works
in the exhibition represent centuries of thought, showing how knowledge
has become more refined over time. MORE
The Dorothy Collins Brown Wing of the Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art is devoted to the work of early 20th-century Pasadena architects Charles Sumner and Henry Mather Greene. Synonymous with the Arts & Crafts Movement in Southern California, their insistence upon fine craftsmanship, houses and furniture harmonized as single artistic expressions, and the use of the highest-quality materials set new levels of excellence. This approach belonged to a larger cultural movement that began in England in response to the Industrial Revolution.
The Huntington’s exhibition, organized in collaboration with the Gamble House/University of Southern California, has three parts. The main hall features the full spectrum and evolution of the Greenes’ artistic genius, with examples of their designs for furniture and decorative arts. The second part is the reassembled stairway from the 1905 Arthur A. Libby house, and the third part of the exhibition is a recreation of the dining room of the Henry M. Robinson House, designed and built in Pasadena between 1905 and 1907.