The Huntington Acquires Rare and Important Artworks That Expand the American, European, and Chinese Collections

SAN MARINO, Calif.—The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens expanded its American, European, and Chinese art collections in 2024 with acquisitions of works by Richmond Barthé, Antoine-François Callet, Helen Pashgian, and Gu Qiao, among others.

This year, six acquisitions were selected by The Huntington’s Art Collectors’ Council, which has supported the growth of the permanent collection for the past 30 years. The selections include a scroll by Gu Qiao and a fan by an anonymous 12th-century Chinese artist, both of which point to the significance of gardens in literati culture during the Qing and Song dynasties; a painting by Andrew Morton and a decorative vase designed by William De Morgan, both highlighting the influence of global cultures on 19th-century British art; and sculptures by Harlem Renaissance artist Richmond Barthé and Light and Space movement artist Helen Pashgian that pay homage to Pasadena, California, as an important artistic hub for launching and fostering the careers of world-class artists.

A recently announced gift from The Ahmanson Foundation —an ambitious, large-scale masterpiece by 18th-century French portraitist Antoine-François Callet, the official painter of Louis XVI—is an important addition to The Huntington’s signature portrait collection.

“The generous support of the Art Collectors’ Council and The Ahmanson Foundation has allowed the Art Museum at The Huntington to bring extraordinary works of art into our permanent collection,” said Christina Nielsen, The Huntington’s Hannah and Russel Kully Director of the Art Museum. “These new additions will delight, educate, and inspire visitors and scholars well into the future. They add luster to our already world-renowned collection, and they add new dimensions to the stories we can tell.”

Some of the new acquisitions will go on display in the art galleries in the coming months, and others will be featured in upcoming special exhibitions at The Huntington.

Acquisitions made possible by The Huntington’s 2024 Art Collectors’ Council:

The unsigned fan painting by a 12th-century Chinese artist is made of fine-quality silk, which suggests it is a product of the imperial painting academy of the Southern Song period (1127–1279), when such intimate paintings were at the height of production. Throughout the Southern Song period, the imperial painting academy produced fans like this for the royal family and as gifts to favored officials. Few Southern Song paintings still exist, particularly works from early in the period. Scholar in Spring Garden depicts a Southern Song imperial retreat with a scholar, elegantly clothed in robes of light blue and white, lost in thought during a garden stroll. The scene is consistent with literary and pictorial representations of the imperial gardens in the Southern Song capital of Lin’an (modern-day Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province). The fan made its way to Japan, where Song-period fans were carefully preserved by connoisseurs and eagerly studied by artists. Today, this fan is mounted as a Japanese-style hanging scroll.

Richmond Barthé’s sculpture Stevedore portrays a powerful Black male dock laborer balancing his weight by holding on to a nearby rope. Barthé’s representation highlights the intersection of hypermasculinity with a confident inner spirit—a recurring theme in his early figurative sculptures of Black men. Born in Mississippi, Barthé was only a few months old when his father died, so he was primarily raised by his mother. His interest in art developed early, and despite racial barriers, he received formal training at the Art Institute of Chicago. Barthé moved to New York following graduation and gained acclaim during the Harlem Renaissance, becoming one of the most renowned Black American sculptors of his generation. After leaving New York, he traveled extensively in the Caribbean and Europe, eventually settling in Pasadena, where Stevedore was cast in 1986 as part of a group of lifetime casts authorized by Barthé. The sculpture was featured in Isaac Julien’s powerful installation Once Again … (Sculptures Never Die) in the 2024 Whitney Biennial.

The newly acquired vase was designed by William De Morgan, a prominent ceramic artist of the late 19th century and a leading figure in the Arts and Crafts movement. Produced at his Sands End Pottery factory in Fulham, England, the vase features the initials “F.P.” at the bottom, referring to De Morgan’s chief decorator, Frederick Passenger. Its balanced composition of stylized leaves and flowers showcases De Morgan’s signature Islamic-inspired decoration. A multifaceted artist, De Morgan was interested in reforming design and decoration in favor of creative and handmade craftsmanship. The vase complements pieces in The Huntington’s collection, including a set of small tiles by De Morgan; drawings by his wife, Evelyn; and objects by his contemporaries in the circle of William Morris. The Huntington’s Library holds a prose piece and a few letters written by and to De Morgan, documenting his work and relationships with other artists, writers, and reformers of the Victorian period.

Andrew Morton’s painting depicts a man of South Asian heritage dressed in a multicolored turban and a striped Indian kurta, holding a silver-gilt cup. The portrait stands out for portraying a non-white figure, a relative rarity in British art of the period. Morton, who trained at London’s Royal Academy, may have painted the figure in Edinburgh, and scholars have identified the man as John Mongo (sometimes spelled as “Monro”), a model working in Edinburgh during the 1840s and 1850s. This identification of the model is significant, as information about people of color in historical works was rarely preserved or never recorded, as in the unidentified man in Portrait of a Young Black Man , a painting acquired by The Huntington in 2022. Morton’s painting complements The Huntington’s 19th-century decorative arts collection, which includes a cup by A.W.N. Pugin that is similar in design to the footed cup held by Mongo. The painting also complements The Huntington’s research holdings that document Britain’s imperial enterprise, and it will be shown in conversation with the institution’s renowned collection of British portraits, including Jane Allnut (ca. 1825) and Pinkie (1794) by Sir Thomas Lawrence, who had a strong influence on Morton’s style.

Born in Pasadena in 1934, Helen Pashgian has had a lifelong fascination with light that began when she was young and has influenced her artistic practice. In her Untitled sculpture—made near the beginning of her now six-decade career—the artist explores the interplay of light through a two-toned, cast polyester resin sculpture in an oblong shape. A central rod refracts and shifts light, creating a dynamic experience for viewers as they move around the work. Pashgian handmade only a few sculptures of this oblong shape, which she refers to as an “elongated sphere.” It is one of her first experiments in her iconic sphere series, for which she is best known. As one of the pioneering members and one of the few women in the Light and Space movement in Southern California during the late 1960s and 1970s, Pashgian delved into the properties of light using industrial materials associated with the aerospace and automotive industries. Untitled is a rare and early example of this artistic movement, predating the coining of “Light and Space” in 1979.

Gu Qiao’s scroll painting unfolds to reveal a scenic journey through dramatic cliffs and old plum trees in bloom, with a hermit reading in his rustic garden retreat. The scroll also features poems and a prose commentary praising the painter’s art. Gu Qiao, an artist from southeastern China, lived during the transition between the Ming and Qing dynasties and was celebrated for his poetry and painting. Recluse in Early Spring captures the paradox of early spring in China, oscillating between frigidity and warmth while also alluding to the political environment of the mid-17th century.

Acquisition made possible by The Ahmanson Foundation:

Antoine-François Callet was born in Paris in 1741. At the age of 23, he won the Prix de Rome and completed his artistic education at the Académie de France in Rome. In the late 1770s, he returned to Paris to begin work on a ceiling painting for the Louvre, which earned him admission to the Académie Royale. As the official painter of Louis XVI, he painted the famous portrait of the king in his coronation robes. Portrait of the Comte de Cromot, Superintendent of the Comte de Provence , at an easel, accompanied by his two daughters-in-law was painted at the height of the artist’s career. It is a unique Old Master work that contains a painting within a painting. The small landscape on the easel adjacent to the sitter was painted on a separate canvas and signed by the Comte de Cromot himself, known to be an amateur painter, and then inserted into the overall composition by Callet.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: High-resolution digital images available on request for publicity use. Request Images]

About The Ahmanson Foundation
The Ahmanson Foundation serves Los Angeles County by funding cultural projects in the arts and humanities, education at all levels, health care, programs related to homelessness and underserved populations as well as a wide range of human services. By supporting nonprofit organizations that demonstrate sound fiscal management, efficient operation, and program integrity, the Foundation strives to enhance the quality of life and cultural legacy of the Los Angeles community.

About The Huntington
The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens is a cultural and educational institution of global significance. Building on Henry E. and Arabella Huntington’s renowned collections, The Huntington supports research and promotes education in the arts, humanities, and botanical science through the growth and preservation of its collections; the development of a community of scholars, school programs, and partnerships; and the display and interpretation of its extraordinary resources for diverse audiences. The Huntington is located at 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, California, 12 miles from downtown Los Angeles. Visitor information: huntington.org

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