The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino encompass many different worlds: There's a desert garden with giant cacti. There are Japanese, Australian, subtropical, herb and rose gardens, even a Shakespeare garden of plants favored during Elizabethan times. And quietly anchoring these is an impressive, yet sometimes overlooked, collection of garden statuary.
Purchased during the early 1900s by railroad tycoon Henry Huntington and his wife, Arabella, the sculptures add an element of classicism to the peaceful ambience of the 130-acre grounds. Many remain exactly where the Huntingtons placed them, perhaps nestled among plants or at the end of a winding path. Together, they call to mind an earlier age, when leisurely afternoons were spent strolling or reading in the garden.
