Wednesday, December 22, 2010

The Burghers of Calais


Liz wanted to visit the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena. So we braved driving rain and a thunderstorm or two for a 40 minute drive up to Pasadena. It was worth the trip! What a stunning gem of a museum! On the way into the building we passed by this amazing sculpture by Auguste Rodin titled "The Burghers of Calais." It seemed particularly wonderful in the rain - there was so much more atmosphere I thought, and the relatively flat light allows you to see all the details of the sculpture. In bright sunlight the subtle shadings of the darker areas would be lost in deep shadow. There is so much more to see in the museum. I only saw half the collection on display!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love that I get a history lesson out of your photos.I had to look up "Burghers of Calais". Great that the museum in Pasadena has one of only 16 sculptures by Rodin. I saw some of his pieces at the Wadsworth Museum in Hartford several years ago.bsk

Ken Spencer said...

Truth telling: I had to look up the Burghers as well. An amazing story! I can't live without Wikipedia, so that's why I make a contribution to them every year.