Arabella Huntington - Art Collection

Art Collection

Throughout her life, Arabella was an inveterate collector of art, jewelry, antiques, and other luxury items. Her particular interests were in old masters, Medieval and Renaissance devotional images, and Louis XIV-Louis XV furniture and decorative arts. At her death, the entirety of her fortune and collections went to her son Archer, who donated many of her paintings to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. These included two Rembrandts, a Vermeer, and several hundred other paintings, most of which had belonged to her husband Collis. The majority of the contents of her primary residence, including most of the artwork, on W. 57th St. were sent to auction. Many of the family's other belongings, including clothing, furniture, tapestries, and porcelain, were bequeathed to other institutions including Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut and the California Palace of the Legion of Honor art museum in San Francisco. Some are located within the collections of the Huntington Library itself, and these formed the basis of an exhibition about Arabella in the Spring of 2006 entitled The Belle of San Marino. It is interesting to note that only the small collection of Medieval and Renaissance paintings at the Huntington Library were in Arabella's own collection. They were purchased by Henry Huntington after her death from an auction set up by her son, Archer. The remainder of the objects in the 'Arabella Memorial Collection' at the Huntington were purchased after her death by Henry Huntington and are only representational of the objects she formerly owned, not the actual objects themselves.