Norton Simon Art Gallery v2.0

This is the first of four Powerpoint on US gallery to be released on the next few day. 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. Norton Simon started collecting seriously in 1964, when he purchased the entire European collection of the Duveen Brot. 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 would complement to that of the more well-known Paul Getty Museum. Ion paintings, it must rank as one of the best on the west coast of America.

1. Norton Simon Museum
Pasadena, Los Angeles, California
First created. 10 December 2010. Version 2.0 – 12 May 2016. London. Jerry TseAll rights reserved. Available free for
non-commercial and non-profit use only

2. 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.

3. The Sculpture
Garden

4. The Sculpture Garden

5. The Painting Galleries

6. Medieval
Madonna and Child. c1340. Tempera on
panel. Paolo Veneziano. Italian.
He has been called “the most important
Venetian painter of the 14
th
century”. Note
that baby Jesus looks more a small man
than a baby.

7. M
e
d
i
e
v
a
l

8. H
i
g
h

R
e
n
a
i
s
s
a
n
c
e
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.

9. High Renaissance
St Benedict and Apollonia. c1483. Oil on panel. Filippino Lippi.
Italian.

10. 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 .

11. 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.

12. German Renaissance
Adam and Eve. c1530. Oil on panel. Lucas Cranach the Elder German.
Lucas Cranach the Elder
was a German Renaissance
painter and a friend of
Martin Luther.

13. G
e
r
m
a
n

R
e
n
a
i
s
s
a
n
c
e
This German Mona
Lisa was painted at
least 25 years after
Leonardo’s Mona
Lisa.

14. Baroque
Baroque

15. Baroque
Rubens was a wealthy Flemish
diplomat, popular with nobility and art
collectors. He was well-known for his
mythological and allegorical subjects.

16. Dutch Golden Age

17. Dutch Golden Age
Rembrandt was an icon of 17C, Dutch
Golden Age.

18. Dutch Portraitist
Frans Hals was, one of the best portrait
painters of the 17C.

19. Dutch Golden Age

20. D
u
t
c
h

G
o
l
d
e
n

A
g
e

21. D
u
t
c
h

G
o
l
d
e
n

A
g
e
A masterpiece by Jan Steen

22. D
u
t
c
h

G
o
l
d
e
n

A
g
e

23. D
u
t
c
h

G
o
l
d
e
n

A
g
e

24. D
u
t
c
h

G
o
l
d
e
n

A
g
e

25. Spanish Painting
Quite unusual to find an early 17C still-life by a well-known Spanish master.

26. 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.

27. 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.

28. Italian Veduta

29. Italian Veduta

30. I
t
a
l
i
a
n

R
o
c
o
c
o

31. F
r
e
n
c
h

L
a
n
d
s
c
a
p
e

32. French Still life Genre

33. French Rococo Portrait

34. French Landscape
An unusual painting by Corot, who normally painted just landscape.

35. F
r
e
n
c
h

R
e
a
l
i
s
m
Also an unusual painting by Courbet, who led the 19C Realist movement in France.

36. Impressionist
Monet, the founder of French Impressionism.

37. I
m
p
r
e
s
s
i
o
n
i
s
t
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”.

Ragpicker. C1865-70. Oil on canvas.
195x131 cm. Edouard Manet. French.
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.

38. Impressionist
A different style of painting normally associated with Renoir.

39. French Impressionist

40. Impressionist
Little Dancer Aged Fourteen.
1878-81. Bronze. Edgar Degas.
French.

41. Impressionist
Works of Degas are well
represented in the museum.

42. I
m
p
r
e
s
s
i
o
n
i
s
t

43. Post Impressionist
Only three years separates between the two portraits.

44. M
o
d
e
r
n
Woman in a Moorish Costume (Detail). 1869. Oil on canvas. Frederic Bazille. Spanish.

45. Modern

46. Modern
Bust of a Woman. 1923. Oil with
black chalk on canvas. Pablo
Picasso. Spanish.

47. Modern

48. The Asian Art Galleries

49. Buddha Shakyamuni. c1100. Granite. Tamil Nadu, India.

50. Asian Art

51. Asian Art
Buddhist Goddess Tara. c1300. Gilded copper
inlaid with semiprecious stones and pigments.
Nepal or Tibet

52. All rights reserved. Available free for non-commercial and non-profit use only
Music – Sacrifice, written by Elton John.
The End
‘Esc’ to end. History of the museum, the collection and the founder to follow.

53. American Museums of Arts

54. Norton Simon, the founder and collector
A daring shrewd art collector
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.
“ I followed the road with unknown end. I go where the going looks best.” [1953]

55. The history of the museum.
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 would comprement 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.
The European Painting collection
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.