Download Norton Simon Museum

Norton Simon Museum
Pasadena, Los Angeles, California, USA
All rights reserved. Available free for
non-commercial and non-profit use only
First created. 10 December 2010. Version 1.0. London. Jerry Tse
Auguste Rodin
On arrival visitors are greeted by to well-known sculptures by Auguste Rodin.
On the left is The Burghers of Calais (1897), it is a sculpture of 6 Calais townspeople who offered their
lives to save their fellow citizens.
On the right is the French novelist literate giant, Balzac who wrote about complex, morally ambiguous
and fully human characters.
The Sculpture Garden
The Sculpture Garden
The Painting Galleries
Medieval
Madonna and Child. c1340. Tempera
on panel. Paolo Veneziano. Italian.
He has been called “the most important
Venetian painter of the 14th century”. Note
that baby Jesus looks more a small man
than a baby.
Medieval
High Renaissance
This Botticelli’s painting needs restoration, with its primer showing through giving the painting a
greenish appearance. On the right show what the painting maybe like.
High Renaissance
St Benedict and Apollonia. c1483. Oil on panel. Filippino
Lippi. Italian.
High Renaissance
St Paul and Frediano. c1483. Oil on panel. Filippino Lippi.
Italian.
Filippino Lippi is the illegitimate son of the painter Fra Filippo Lippi, who
may have trained Sandro Botticelli .
High Renaissance
Madonna and Child with Book.
1502-03. Oil on panel. Sanzio
Raffaello (Raphael). Italian.
Raffaello was well-known for painting
Madonna and Child. In his earlier years,
he painted a stream of Madonna and
Child. His Madonna and Child paintings
were well loved, as he painted the
affection between Madonna and the baby
Jesus.
German Renaissance
Lucas Cranach the Elder
was a German Renaissance
painter and a friend of
Martin Luther.
Adam and Eve. c1530. Oil on panel. Lucas Cranach the Elder German.
German Renaissance
This German Mona
Lisa was painted at
least 25 years after
Leonardo’s
Mona
Lisa.
Baroque
Baroque
Baroque
Rubens was a wealthy Flemish diplomat,
popular with nobility and art collectors.
He was well-known for his mythological
and allegorical subjects.
Dutch Golden Age
Dutch Golden Age
Rembrandt was an icon of 17C, Dutch
Golden Age.
Dutch Portraitist
Frans Hals was, one of the best portrait
painters of the 17C.
Dutch Golden Age
Dutch Golden Age
Dutch Golden Age
A masterpiece by Jan Steen
Dutch Golden Age
Dutch Golden Age
Dutch Golden Age
Spanish Painting
Quite unusual to find an early 17C still-life by a well-known Spanish master.
Spanish Romaticism
Goya was a painter of the Enlightenment
era. He was known for his paintings on the
horror of the French conquest of Spain.
Italian Veduta
Luca Carlevarijs was the first to popularize the Italian Veduta paintings (views of
Venice). This movement is well represented in the gallery by the additional paintings
by Canaletto and Guardi.
Italian Veduta
Italian Veduta
Italian Rococo
French Landscape
French Landscape
An unusual painting by Corot, who normally painted just landscape.
French Realism
Also an unusual painting by Courbet, who led the 19C Realist movement in France.
Impressionist
Monet, the founder of French Impressionism.
Impressionist
Ragpicker. C1865-70. Oil on canvas.
195x131 cm.
Edouard Manet.
French.
A very large and impressive painting by
Edouard Manet. “The Ragpicker” is a
group of 7 monumental paintings of a
single figures.
This painting was
inspired by Velazquez‘s “Philosophers”.
The painting was based on the idea
that poverty and wisdom are linked.
Beggars, ragpickers, drunks and
peasants were often featured as
characters in both literature and
paintings.
Impressionist
A different style of painting normally associated with Renoir.
Impressionist
Little Dancer Aged Fourteen.
1878-81. Bronze. Edgar
Degas. French.
Impressionist
Works of Degas are well
represented in the museum.
Impressionist
Post Impressionist
Only three years separates between the two portraits.
Modern
Woman in a Moorish Costume (Detail). 1869. Oil on canvas. Frederic Bazille. Spanish.
Modern
Modern
Bust of a Woman. 1923. Oil
with black chalk on canvas.
Pablo Picasso. Spanish.
Modern
The Asian Art Galleries
Buddha Shakyamuni. c1100. Granite. Tamil Nadu, India.
Asian Art
Asian Art
Buddhist Goddess Tara. c1300. Gilted
copper inlaid with semiprecious stones
and pigments. Nepal or Tibet
The End
‘Esc’ to end. History of the museum, the collection and the founder to follow.
Music – Sacrifice, written by Elton John.
All rights reserved. Available free for non-commercial and non-profit use only
The history of the museum.
In 1974 Norton Simon agreed to take over the Pasadena Art
Museum, giving his collection a permanent home. In 1995, the
museum began a major renovation and design. It also included a
new theatre.
The European Painting collection
Norton Simon started collecting seriously in 1964, when he
purchased the entire European collection of the Duveen Brothers.
Today, his collection on European paintings is broadly based and
methodological. The collection covers the whole span of European
painting developments from the early Renaissance to modern days.
All the mainstream movements are represented by works from the
masters. However, one noticeable absence are paintings from
America.
In 1970s the collection started to include Asian Arts.
Today, there are some 4,000 works in the collection.
On European paintings the collection must rival in its importance to
that of the more well-known Paul Getty Museum. It must rank as one
of the best if not the best on the west coast of America.
Norton Simon, the founder and collector
A daring shrewd art collector
“ I followed the road with unknown end. I go where the going looks best.” [1953]
Norton Simon is known as a successful
businessman. At the age of 24, he made his
first major business venture by investing in a
bankrupt orange juice bottling plant, on which
he built his business empire. From there he
was involved in a string of businesses
including, Hunts Food, Canadian Dry, Max
Factor Cosmetics and Avis Car Rental.
Norton Simon was passionate for the visual
arts and embarked a journey to collect the
finest works of art. It is amazing that any
individual, can collect so much and so
comprehensively, so recently and in such a
short time.
Norton Simon was born in 1907, Portland,
Oregon. He died in 1993 in Beverly Hills,
aged 86.