norton simon museum

We visited three wonderful places in Pasadena at the end of a stay on the west coast (from England): the Norton Simon, the Huntington Library, and the Gamble House. All were amazing, but had similar closing days so needed careful planning, especially as there was so much to enjoy at them all.The Norton Simon has a diverse collection of top class works in a well designed building with a lovely sculpture garden. It is right beside a freeway but landscaping and extensive tree planting give plenty of protection.We failed to see much of the basement section on Asian art because we ran out of time but that only means we will have to come back again.Pasadena Old Town is pleasant too. If you stay there all the attractions mentioned above are easily reachable even without a car, as there are plenty of buses.

I recently visited the Norton Simon museum with my daughter for a field trip. I was very impressed with the art collection, the museum grounds and our docent was fantastic. I've never had a docent at a art museum before but it definitely added to the experience.

The Norton Simon is a not-to-be-missed experience in the LA area. This private collection includes Southeast Asian and European Renaissance with more than 12,000 items on display. The gardens are especially beautiful and contain many sculptures. Excellent!

This is a smaller museum, with much to enjoy indoors as well as outdoors. One of my favorite areas is the area that displays impressionists like Cezanne, Pisarro, Van Gogh, Manet, Renoir and others. There is a small Renoir I particularly liked, a painting of a gathering of several men in Renoir's studio; one of the men is Cezanne. An early Renoir also caught my attention, a scene depicting the Pont des Arts in Paris. There are several Van Gogh's that allow you to see the progression of his painting throughout his sadly short career, including a protrait of his mother. We also enjoyed the lovely sculpture gardens inspired in Monet's Giverny. We enjoyed a light meal at a very pleasant outdoor garden cafe which is in the garden itself, where you can view the pond, sculptures and landscape. It seems a kid frinedly museum, with some of the brochures designed specifically for children.

This museum has a wonderful impressionist collection It also has a number of sculptures and paintings for the 15-16th century. I would recommend doing the impressionist side last as it far more enjoyable. The grounds are also pleasant to walk around.

If you have the opportunity, visit on the first Friday night of the month between 5-8p for free admission. Otherwise, visit this great little museum that is loaded with gems of art. There were five Van Goghs on display, a bunch of other famous impressionists and a collection of Renaissance art from Europe. The outdoor sculpture garden is great. The museum is well laid out. Very easy to visit, not a labyrinth of interconnected rooms. Very simple design, ensuring that you won't miss anything. Well worth your time.

We spent one night in Pasadena and since the weather was quite cool, we decided to visit this museum not really expecting much but we were pleasantly surprised! Fantastic collection of art, all of the famous painters are well represented, very nice layout, beautiful garden. Lots of sculptures by Rodin and Degas in and around the museum. Definitely one of the nicest museums we've visited and we've been to quite a few. Don't miss if you're in the area. There is ample parking space (free) outside. Reasonable entrance fee (USD 12 pp when we were there).

I had completely forgot how fabulous this museum is. Incredible collection of art. I saw multiple educational tours going on while I was there. The grounds are beautiful and they have an outdoor cafe that had surprisingly good quick food.Parking was free.It was great to rediscover this Southern California treasure

I love this place because it's like a mini-Met. They have fantastic examples of just about everything and it's not a life-long project to see it all. When I just want a nice outing with my elderly mom or a little culture fix when my daughter is getting too attached to reality TV this is the perfect afternoon. The grounds are beautiful, the giftshop always something unusual, and the café outside is a nice place to read if you are solo.

This museum has an amazing collection of impressionist paintings and sculptures that are world class in quality and scale. It is a small and manageable museum with beautiful gardens outside where you can have lunch from a Patina restaurant. And right now they have one of the most famous paintings by Edouard Manet on exhibit until early March. Well worth a visit if you are from out of town--Its a little off the beaten path (15 minutes North of downtown) but if you like Impressionists it is definitely worth the trip.

We spent about 4 hours at the museum. We used the audio guide which was great. The cost of admission is $12.00 and $3.00 for the audio. The museum also has a cafe and beautiful outside garden. Check out the unusual tree at the far end of the pond. It is spectacular.

From downtown LA, I caught a local light rail train here which was a fun and easy experience.A beautiful walk through Pasadena (not Big Bang Nerds in sight!).My only regret was I should have allowed more time to see the displays.Set in beautiful gardens, and with a collection that is stunning-time period pieces, asian art and the list goes on. The European Renaissance painters were amazing. Boudin, Picasso, Rembrandt, Renoir, etc etcI should have allowed more than 3 hours and I'm not even an art lover!A definite must see in LA!

It is a peaceful place to spend a few hours. I never go through all the exhibits at once, personally, that is exhausting. But strolling through the gardens or galleries is wonderful.

Lovely collection of Chola bronzes and other SE Asian sculpture. A good overview collection of paintings from the 14th cent. through modern: While some of the paintings are not among the best work produced by that particular artist, the curating is exceptional: The more-extensive-than-usual signage accompanying each painting and sculpture, describing why this particular artist or work of art is significant, the symbolism or providing some additional context more than makes up for any particular piece that is less than the artist's best (and many of the pieces really are wonderful when evaluated on their own merits). The sculpture garden is also a pleasant place to enjoy a cup of coffee. Too bad the food offerings are so limited.

A small but very high quality collection of beautiful and accessible art which makes for a very nice half day visit. No hords of people. Beautiful garden too. We come here frequently and always bring out our of town visitors here for a change of pace from the more noisy and crowded places.