She is a true celebrity of the "Gilded Age"
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The world's largest collection of private libraries and art museums; the New York mansion of oil king Rockefeller; the founding legend of Harry Winston's jewelry kingdom... Who is the intersection of these distant cross-borders?
Arabella Duval Huntington, born in a humble background and widowed at an early age, later became the richest woman in the world, and her art appreciation was widely praised by professionals.
Arabella Duval Huntington (circa 1850–1924), American collector and philanthropist
Did she make collins Huntington and Henry Huntington's uncle and nephew fall under the pomegranate skirt, relying only on beauty? Absorbing the essence of human civilization, and giving these collections back to society and serving the society - how can she harvest these achievements when she has nothing at the beginning of her life?
The Huntington Library is a mecca of American and Western culture that integrates libraries, art museums, and botanical gardens.
Today, we're going to talk about Arabella Huntington and the story of The Huntingtons, the result of the Huntington family's wealth.
1
The Golden House hides "Jiao" in New York
Arabella was born in the United States around 1850 to an ordinary working-class family, and her father died less than ten years old, leaving her mother alone with five children to support the family by running a small hotel. The young Arabella has a beautiful face, and her mother has taught her to be polite and decent from an early age, hoping that her daughter can find an ideal partner by relying on her beautiful face.
Although the hotel is small, it does not prevent the flow of people
In his early 20s, a ray of ideals shone into reality, and Arabella met Collins Huntington, a 48-year-old industrialist and railroad magnate, in New York.
The two met by chance, although the background is very different, the age difference is huge, but between the conversations, they feel more and more late to see each other.
Collins Huntington is an American industrialist and railroad magnate, and the two met in their mother's inn in their 20s. Previously, Arabella experienced marriage and widowhood before she was 20 years old (there are also rumors that her first husband is missing).
Arabella's innate artistic taste was revealed by Collins's discovery, and she was willing to learn more and devote herself to the world of art. Collins respects and appreciates this, and the same interest makes the two know each other better, and the relationship quickly heats up.
In 1870, the unmarried Arabella gave birth to Collins' son Archer.
Although Collins is sitting on a billionaire, his consumption of his own use is not high, and it is said that he is only $200 in his whole body, but he is very generous to Arabella. If Arabella is a jade, then Collins is the one who helps her shine. Before he could marry her, Huntington hired a maid on Fifth Avenue in New York to buy a mansion for her.
This mansion was built specifically for Arabella (said to be one of the first elevator houses in the United States)
During her days in New York, Arabella learned French every day and immersed herself in a sea of books on art history, architecture and the art of decoration. She is also passionate about collecting art and decorating houses, one of her proud works, full of decorative styles that swept europe and the United States in the late nineteenth century.
The mansion on West 54th Street, Fifth Avenue, New York, was later sold by them to oil magnate Rockefeller, who fully appreciated Arabella's artistic taste and made few changes to the room.
Today, the economy of the United States is growing by leaps and bounds, with wealthy families mimicking the lavish design of European castles and palaces, incorporating ornate European styles such as the Renaissance, Romanesque and Rococo into interior design. Rare antiques collected across Europe are often the finishing touches in the interior. The Arabella couple's mansion is second to none.
The parlor is decorated with abstract and vibrant geometric patterns, dark furniture, fringed chairs, etc., which is typical of the Moorish style.
Friez and ceiling decoration by Italian painter Virginia Tojetti / 1881-82 / In the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Influenced by the aesthetic movement that was popular in the late 19th century, the room and furniture were unified into one whole, the recessed furniture was covered with late Renaissance carving styles and mosaic patterns, and the light and shadow cast by the painted ceiling and windows seemed to blend perfectly into a work of art.
Needless to say, the décor of the parlor is self-explanatory, and Arabella's artistic taste is even exquisite to the bathroom.
The washroom showcases a variety of wooden recessed furniture and inlays
The vanity mirror and chair also feature a purple heart setting, produced by George A. Schastey/in the early 1880s/in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
The bedrooms are a mix of three styles: British-Japanese-style ebony furniture, Moorish-style Arabic arches, geometric and arabesque patterns, and the owner's typical red velvet curtains and red cushioned brocade chairs in the American "Gilded Age" – these styles complement each other without any overlap.
Arabella's bedroom / In the 1880s and 1920s, red was a symbol of wealth and status.
After Collins and Arabella were officially married in 1884, the family of three traveled frequently to Europe. Arabella was able to enjoy the masterpieces of European culture and art at its peak, and Collins, as always, chose to support her interests and give full financial guarantees, and they bought a large number of works of art and paintings.
The relationship between the two is also like more and more collections in the house, and it is becoming deeper and firmer
Arabella realized when she first saw Vermeer's paintings in Europe that he was a pioneer of the art of the times, and Vermeer's contributions to painting had been overlooked for more than 200 years. One of the "Pearl Earrings Series", The Woman with the Lute, survived and became one of the most important works in the Huntington family's collection thanks to Arabella's discernment.
Of Vermeer's only 36 surviving works, the Girl with the Pearl Earring is probably the most famous, using the same imagery of a woman wearing a pearl / Vermeer's Woman with a Lute / 1664 / Now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art as a donation
Her husband's consistent love and support has allowed Arabella to have always had an enviable love. Unfortunately, the good things in the world are not strong, and in 1900, Collins died at the age of 78.
Arabella, son Archer, and nephew Henry Huntington inherited Collins' estate on average.
Arabella became the richest woman in the world at the time. In honor of her husband, she donated $100,000 to General Memorial Hospital to establish the first cancer research fund in the United States, the Huntington Cancer Research Fund. Ten years later, Collins' nephew Henry entered Arabella's life with a new identity.
Henry Huntington was also a collector of art and rare books
2
California Dreams Come True
Arabella cherishes Henry's feelings for her and is pleased with their common pursuit. When she decided to accept Henry as her husband, rumors spread in social circles. But the like-minded finally made the two of them decide to spend the rest of their lives together and continue their art collection and public philanthropy together.
The mansion was built between 1909 and 1911 and renovated in 2008/The east and west wings of the Huntington Mansion are now the Huntington Library and Gallery, respectively
After their marriage, they moved to California, bought 550 acres of land near Pasadena, and began building their own large estate, the San Marino Ranch, which would later form the Huntington Library and Art Museum.
In the middle of the Roman columns lined with cloisters are sculptures of goddesses
The living room concentrates on the Decorative Arts of the French aristocracy from Arabella's collection. Eighteenth-century gilded bronze sculptures, porcelain, tapestries and inlaid furniture, which the Arabella couple acquired for the equivalent of $31 million today, are on display. The middle two floors retain the appearance of the Huntingtons' daily life in the 1920s.
Brocade-adorned chairs and crystal chandeliers accentuate the entire living room.
This pair of vases is one of the largest and most extravagant porcelain vases ever produced by Sever, and no other known Sever vase has modeled this particular architectural form before this/ Large pastel glazed vase with lid/1762
Diana the Hunt for 1782 / Jean-Antoine Houdon
Produced by the teller Bernard Molitor, Sèvres made the inlaid ceramic layout, the layout was painted by the artist Charles Nicolas Dodin and the workbench/production between 1774 and 1816
Inside the spacious and bright hall, a tapestry chair with a 2-century design style is one of Arabella's earliest collections of French decorative arts, wool and silk tapestries from the famous French Gobelins brand, originally designed by Francis Boucher for Madame de Pompadour.
The upper two small cupids represent science and art, while the chair frame is in the 19th century neoclassical style.
Arabella also paired it with two carpets of "astrology" and "music" in a series of carpets commissioned by King Louis XIV in 1665 to be customized by the Savonnerie brand, which are also exhibited in the Louvre
"Astrology" carpet partial
California's sunshine is always shining, and Arabella and Henry often feast on friends at home for family gatherings, making the restaurant a top priority.
Panoramic view of the restaurant. The dining table is surrounded by Chippendale chairs with royal green cushions that swept Europe and the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Those who can be invited to be entertained by the Huntington couple are not idle people. In the early 1920s, the Crown Prince and Princess of Sweden visited Huntington's mansion and had dinner with the Arabellas. Porcelain and tableware from europe's leading names filled the tables and shone brightly at the brightly lit dinner.
The dining table usually accommodates 6-12 people, but can be extended to accommodate as many as 30 people if necessary.
Sever carmine enamel round bowl with lid and plate/1759
(Top) 1843 Robert Garrard II produced a long-handled silver spoon / (part 2) 1682 S.E. produced Charles II large silver wine glasses
In addition to home decoration, Arabella's jewelry collection taste is also outstanding. She bought a large number of Cartier and Tiffany pearls and diamonds in New York, including the very famous "pearl rope", and later Harry Winston acquired the precious stones of Arabella and set them into new works.
Harry Winston Jewelry's "Bella" collection is created in honor of Arabella. /Portrait of Arabella by Giovanni Portini in 1880
In order to enrich the collection, the Arabella couple crossed the Atlantic Ocean several times, collecting and purchasing art, rare books, manuscripts and historical manuscripts from Europe like swallows. The west wing of the now Huntington Mansion is home to the Huntingtons' collection of Italian and Northern Renaissance paintings, some of which are also arabella's collections during his time in New York.
The current Huntington Art Gallery is divided into the Huntington Museum, where the Arabella couple's private home was converted, the art gallery named after Virginia Steele Scott, the patron of American art, and the Mary Lou and George Boone Gallery, which mainly exhibit American art from the colonial period to the present
The Huntington couple received works by the Renaissance painters Ghirlandaio and Rogier van der Weyden / Rogier van der Weyden 'Madonna and Child / circa 1460
Domenico Ghirlandaio / Portrait of a Man / circa 1490
Their art collection is concentrated in European works from the 15th to the early 20th centuries, spanning different regions such as England, Italy, France and the Netherlands; more than 42,000 works include oil paintings, sculptures, decorative arts, prints and drawings.
The oil painting "The Boy in Blue" is known as the most famous collection in the collection. The couple bought it for $728,000, almost the most expensive price in the world at the time, and housed it at the Huntington Museum of Art.
The Boy in Blue in 1920 has become one of England's most famous works of art/1770
Interestingly, they also cleverly arranged a "girl in pink" for the boy in blue in the same exhibition hall, and the two paintings stood opposite each other, sighing and adding a little more legend and imagination.
The two children have similar expressions and postures. The girl in pink was created by the British painter Thomas Lawrence, 24 years later than the Boy in Blue/1794
Thanks to the Arabella couple's hard work, Huntington's collection also houses the most important collection of British portraits outside of the UK.
Portraits of the 17th-century Flemish painters Anthony van Dyck and the English Baroque Peter Riley, the 18th-century French Rococo paintings of Watteau, Grütz and Boucher, and the 19th-century British landscape masters Constable and Turner "meet" here.
Joshua Reynolds, founder of the Royal College of Art, Francis Morsworth, later Marquise Camden/1777
Anthony van, Portrait of a Woman/1639
Turner, The Grand Canal: A Venetian Street View/1837
Salisbury Catheral from the Bishop's Grounds/1825/The Metropolis has a version with the same angle but a slightly different composition
Behind the art collection and appreciation is naturally the accumulation of knowledge, in this new home in addition to the exquisite gallery, the library is also an equally critical part.
The library covers an area of 8,900 square meters, with the permanent exhibition "Extraordinary Works, Extraordinary Times: Important Collections of the Huntington Library" in the main hall, the Permanent Exhibition of the History of Science in the Dibner Room, and the other permanent exhibition areas in the West Hall
Built in 1919, the Huntington Library is a Mediterranean Revival style building with a collection of 9 million rare books and manuscripts, and the Harvard Library has the largest collection of books in the United States today.
Ptolemaic Guide to Geography, 1486
"The world lives and dies, but books last forever." To be famous and immortal, collecting a batch of rare rare books is the safest way. ”
—Henry Huntington
The library houses folios and four folios of William Shakespeare's plays, precious materials that no other library can find. Without this version, often referred to as the First Folio, many of Shakespeare's plays might not have survived.
Portrait of Shakespeare/The Tempest Folio Format Script/The First Folio Format of Shakespeare's Plays Collection constitutes the most reliable source of his 36 plays.
Arabella's fascination with art collecting deeply influenced her son Archer. After traveling with his parents in Europe at the age of twelve, visiting the National Gallery in London and the Louvre in Paris, Archer developed a deep love for art and museums and made curating art museums his lifelong career.
Arabella, who bought the painting for her son, paid for an initial issue of $50,000 and is now worth at least $2.4 million/ Diego Velazquez Portrait of a Little Girl/ 1636-44
Arabella has always given her son spiritual and material support. She bought portraits by the Spanish painter Velázquez at an unprecedented price to add to the collection of the museum he founded.
In 1904, with the support of his mother, Archer founded the Museum of Hispanic Culture in New York. / Portrait of Gaspar de Guzman, Count of Olivarez, for $650,000 / Circa 1636
The botanical gardens outside the building are also in full bloom throughout the year under the care of the Arabella couple, and the 120-acre botanical garden showcases plants from all over the world, the most famous of which are the Japanese Garden, the Desert Garden and the Chinese Garden.
There is no shortage of antique sculptures collected by the two in the botanical garden / Ange-Jacques Gabriel," Temple of Love, 1765
Battista Lorenzi, Tomei Albiani Fountain/1570
In 1924, Arabella died. Henry endured his grief and continued to refine the Arabella Huntington Memorial Art Collection, the Building of the Huntington Library and Art Gallery Institution. Three years later, Henry went with her. They were buried together in the Huntington Library's Botanical Garden.
Overlooking the site from a hill in the library's orange grove, stands the mausoleums of Arabella and Henry, a circular neoclassical marble building similar to an ancient Greek temple of love, designed by renowned architect John Russell Pope.
In 1928, the Huntington Library, Art Gallery, and Botanical Garden were officially opened to the public, exhibiting 9 million books and manuscripts, tens of thousands of works of art, and more than 2,000 scholars in the fields of history, literature, art history, and science, technology, and medicine come from all over the world to conduct academic research every year.
Today, near the entrance to the Huntington Museum and Library, there is a portrait of Arabella, her eyes deep, full of wisdom and calm accumulated over the years.
In addition to the collections preserved in Huntington, according to the bequest, hundreds of paintings were donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and some furniture was donated to other institutions, including Yale University and the California Museum of Art/Arabella Portrait/1882, Alexander Cabanell
Born into poverty, Arabella was fortunate enough to gain the love, respect and support of her two husbands. In the end, they gave their wealth back to the people of the whole society in the form of public welfare organizations, and their reputation will last forever.
What makes her is love, financial resources, and talent, but also endless love and lifelong persistence.
Editor | Europium, CCis, Autumn Bugs
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