And then we’ll take tea
A walk in the park “Excursions of Imagination: 100 Great British Drawings from the Huntington’s Collection” by Bondo Wyszpolski The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens had begun to celebrate its centennial over the course of 2019 and 2020, and this show, “Excursions of Imagination,” was earmarked for that occasion. Like much else, it was shelved for a couple of years. With some exceptions, like Thomas Rowlandson and William Blake, Henry and Arabella Huntington did not collect British drawings. What they liked to acquire were those full-length portraits by Gainsborough and Reynolds, etc, that are on view in the Huntington mansion picture gallery. For the most part, these drawings were gathered under the curatorship of Robert R. Wark, who ruled the roost from 1956 to 1990, and later Shelley M. Bennett. Wark and Bennett must have kept busy, for the works on display were culled from 12,000 British drawings in the Huntington’s collection. They are presented (in the catalog at least) in roughly chronological order and span the 16th through the late 20th century. The pieces themselves range from working sketches, pages snatched from sketchbooks, to finished exhibition…
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