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The Thinker by Auguste Rodin, at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena. It was moved to this new location on the museum property in 2025.<\/p>\n
(<\/p>\n
Adolfo Guzman-Lopez\/LAist<\/p>\n
)<\/p>\n
He was fascinated by art and artists<\/a> and used the drive that made him successful in business to buy and collect art. You\u2019ll see paintings by Rembrandt, key works by Auguste Rodin on the museum\u2019s grounds (including the Thinker), as well as paintings by abstract expressionist Helen Frankenthaler, and centuries-old sculptures from India and Cambodia.<\/p>\n The Norton Simon Museum’s art collection includes sculptures from Cambodia and other south Asian countries.<\/p>\n (<\/p>\n Elon Schoenholz<\/p>\n \/<\/p>\n Courtesy Norton Simon Museum<\/p>\n )<\/p>\n The museum currently displays about 1,000 pieces from the blended Pasadena Art Museum and Simon collections. In total it has 12,000 objects, ranging from masters like Rembrandt and Picasso to contemporary art by Ed Ruscha and Sam Francis. <\/p>\n For its 50th anniversary this year, the museum spent $15 million to rebuild and renovate its gardens and its signature fa\u00e7ade, which faces Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena and puts it in the middle of worldwide TV coverage of the Rose Parade each year.<\/p>\n For those who get slightly overwhelmed at grander museums like the Getty or LACMA, the more people-scaled Norton Simon is a great option. If you’re heading there, here are some highlights recommended by the museum staff you shouldn’t miss:<\/p>\n The long-lost Degas<\/p>\n Start with the newest acquisition by the museum, a roughly 1-foot-tall bronze sculpture by Edgar Degas<\/a> titled “Arabesque over the right leg, left arm in front.”<\/p>\n The bronze sculpture is the most recent acquisition by the Norton Simon Museum.<\/p>\n (<\/p>\n Adolfo Guzman-Lopez<\/p>\n \/<\/p>\n LAist<\/p>\n )<\/p>\n Simon loved and collected Edgar Degas\u2019<\/a> late 19th century sculptures of dancers. But as much as he tried, and as much money as he had, his collection was incomplete.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 1977, Norton Simon bought an almost complete set of sculptures by Edgar Degas,\u201d Talbot said. \u201cIt was missing just two, and we have been looking for those two sculptures ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n Last year, the staff finally found one of them. It\u2019s the first work of art the museum has purchased in 18 years.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a sort of sculptural sketch, Talbot said, created by Degas to understand a dancer\u2019s poses before making the final work. It has the rough surfaces of the original clay and wax the artist used ahead of casting the bronze. <\/p>\n \u201cThese sculptures really give you a sense of the artist’s mind, how he thought about process, what he thought was interesting about the body and movement, and that’s really captured in these casts,\u201d Talbot said.<\/p>\n Degas painted, made prints and sculpted. His pastel drawings<\/a> are sublime. And this sculpture makes the Norton Simon one of the top places in the world to see Degas\u2019 dancer sculptures.<\/p>\n The two faces of Picasso<\/p>\n A visit to the museum will put you face to face with a master work by Pablo Picasso. It\u2019s a 4 foot by 3 foot painting called “Woman with a Book.”<\/p>\n Woman with a Book by Pablo Picasso on display at the Norton Simon Museum.<\/p>\n (<\/p>\n Adolfo Guzman-Lopez\/LAist<\/p>\n )<\/p>\n It\u2019s thought to be inspired, Talbot said, by a 19th century painting, “Madame Moitessier,” by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres.<\/p>\n Madame Moitessier by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres.<\/p>\n (<\/p>\n Courtesy National Gallery<\/p>\n )<\/p>\n \u201cPicasso used that composition, which also depicted a woman seated in an armchair. But he sort of updated it for the modern moment, using these very bright colors and also kind of drawing your attention to a somewhat more sensual representation of the subject,\u201d Talbot said.<\/p>\n A few years ago, the Norton Simon borrowed that Ingres painting from the National Gallery in London and displayed the two paintings side by side.<\/a><\/p>\n Woman with a Book by Pablo Picasso at the Norton Simon Museum.<\/p>\n (<\/p>\n Elon Schoenholz<\/p>\n \/<\/p>\n Courtesy Norton Simon Museum<\/p>\n )<\/p>\n This Picasso, she said, is a good illustration of one of the artist\u2019s most repeated quotes: that \u201cgood artists copy, great artists steal.\u201d He not only used another painter’s composition; he also embraced another artist’s color choices.<\/p>\n \u201cIn this particular painting, we have a palette that was really inspired by his friend Henri Matisse,\u201d Talbot said, referring to the strong red and blue, and soft pastel shades.<\/p>\n An epic chess match. Your move!<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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