Discover Norton Simon Museum In Pasadena CaliforniaWritten by David G. Hallstrom, Sr.
The Norton Simon Museum sits on 9.5 acres, is housed in an 85,000 squrare foot structure and is located in beautiful city of Pasadena, California at 411 W. Colorado Blvd. right across street from where television cameras are set up every year for Rose Parade. Therefore millions of people view front of museum each year as they watch Rose Parade. What most of these viewers do not know is that "The Norton Simon Museum of Art holds one of world's finest and most prestigious private collections of European, American and Asian art." The collection, which includes works by van Gogh, Picasso, Rembrandt, Rodin and Fragonard consists of over 1,000 works, including paintings, etchings (by Rembrandt, Goya, etc.), sculptures, photographs (Ansel Adams) and other mediums spanning a period of over 2,000 years. The museum also hosts lectures, gallery talks, family programs, musical performances, dance performances, films and tours. The museum provides both private tours and monthly free public tours of their collection conducted by Museum Educators.
| | Discover The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical GardensWritten by David G. Hallstrom, Sr.
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens is located on 150 acres of land at 1150 Oxford Rd. in city of San Marino, California. San Marino is best known for financial wealth of it's residents and for it's proximity to city of Pasadena http://pasadena.usacitydirectories.com. Many people, however, believe that city's biggest asset is Huntington Library which is made of three art galleries and a library which "showcase magnificent collections of paintings, sculptures, rare books, manuscripts, and decorative arts", and botanical garden with a collection which "features over 14,000 different species of plants". The Huntington houses such treasures as "the Ellesmere manuscript of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales; a Gutenberg Bible on vellum; double-elephant folio edition of Audubon’s Birds of America; a world-class collection of early editions of Shakespeare’s works; original letters of Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, and Lincoln; and an unsurpassed collection of materials relating to history of American West.", 18th century British and French art, American art ranging from early 18th century to early 20th, French and British sculpture, tapestries, furniture, porcelain, and silver, and British drawings and watercolors. Additionaly, Huntington is world renowned as home to Gainsborough’s Blue Boy and Lawrence’s Pinkie. "Henry Huntington began developing Botanical Gardens in 1903. Now they span nearly 150 acres with sweeping lawns and vistas interspersed with statuary, tempiettos, and benches. Approximately 15,000 kinds of plants from all over world make up botanical collections, many landscaped into a series of theme gardens." The three and a half acre Huntington Rose Garden is comprised of approximately 1,200 cultivars made up of "Old Garden Roses (roses developed before 1901); China, Tea, and Noisette Roses; Shrub Roses (including David Austin English Roses); and Modern Roses from all parts of world".
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