Browse among blossoms, books and a Blue Boy at the HUNTINGTON
Who has the stamina to take the full measure of the Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens in a single visit? This institution, steeped in nature, art, literature and wealth, fills 130 acres. Depending on where you roam, the estate’s gardens evoke the desert, the jungle, China, Japan and Europe.
Also, the Rose Garden Tea Room, a longtime local favorite that closed in 2020, is set to reopen May 24 after a renovation.
Meanwhile, the museum and library, underwritten by a railroad fortune, have been diversifying energetically. “Blue Boy,” Thomas Gainsborough’s emblematic 18th century portrait of a rich British kid, returned in 2022 from London’s National Gallery, and now shares a gallery with “Portrait of a Young Gentleman” by American artist Kehinde Wiley (who painted Barack Obama’s presidential portrait). Other exhibits include quilts from Gee’s Bend (through Sept. 4) and the long-term installation “Borderlands,” which shows how artists probe political and personal boundaries.
The Huntington’s library Exhibition Hall displays include a 15th century manuscript of Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” and a typed draft of Pasadena’s own Octavia E. Butler’s “Parable of the Sower” (1993). And through Dec. 4, the Library West Hall will display the oldest printed book in the Huntington’s collection, “The Scripture of the Great Flower Ornament of the Buddha,” created in 1085. Adult admission is $25-$29 for nonmembers. Closed Tuesday.
BONUS TIP: There’s more Octavia Butler, and more books by people of color generally, three miles north of the Huntington at Octavia’s Bookshelf on North Hill Avenue in Pasadena. The bookshop opened in February.