California Palace of the Legion of Honor
Encyclopedia
Fine art
Fine art or the fine arts encompass art forms developed primarily for aesthetics and/or concept rather than practical application. Art is often a synonym for fine art, as employed in the term "art gallery"....
museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
in San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
. The name is used both for the museum collection and for the building in which it is housed.
History
The Legion of Honor was the gift of Alma de Bretteville SpreckelsAlma de Bretteville Spreckels
Alma de Bretteville Spreckels , known both as "Big Alma" and "The Great Grandmother of San Francisco", was a wealthy socialite and philanthropist who, among her many accomplishments, persuaded her first husband, sugar magnate Adolph B...
, wife of the sugar
Sugar
Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...
magnate and thoroughbred
Thoroughbred
The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word thoroughbred is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed...
racehorse
Horse racing
Horse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...
owner/breeder Adolph B. Spreckels
Adolph B. Spreckels
Adolph Bernard Spreckels was a California businessman who ran Spreckels Sugar Company and who donated the California Palace of the Legion of Honor art museum to the city of San Francisco in 1924. His wife Alma was called the "great grandmother of San Francisco".-Biography:His father was Claus...
. The building is a three-quarter-scale version of the Palais de la Légion d'Honneur
Palais de la Légion d'Honneur
The Palais de la Légion d'Honneur is the building on the west bank of the River Seine in Paris that houses the Musée national de la Légion d'Honneur et des Ordres de Chevalerie and is the seat of the Légion d'honneur, the highest order of chivalry of France...
also known as the Hôtel de Salm in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
by George Applegarth and H. Guillaume. It was completed in 1924.
The museum building occupies an elevated site in Lincoln Park
Lincoln Park (San Francisco)
Lincoln Park in San Francisco, California, was dedicated to President Abraham Lincoln in 1909 and includes about of the northwestern corner of the San Francisco Peninsula....
in the northwest of the city, with views over the Golden Gate Bridge
Golden Gate Bridge
The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the opening of the San Francisco Bay into the Pacific Ocean. As part of both U.S. Route 101 and California State Route 1, the structure links the city of San Francisco, on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula, to...
. Most of the surrounding Lincoln Park Golf Course is on the site of a potter's field
Potter's field
A potter's field was an American term for a place for the burial of unknown or indigent people. The expression derives from the Bible, referring to a field used for the extraction of potter's clay, which was useless for agriculture but could be used as a burial site.-Origin:The term comes from...
called the "Golden Gate Cemetery" that the City had bought in 1867. The cemetery was closed in 1908 and the bodies were relocated to Colma
Colma, California
Colma is a small incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, at the northern end of the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 1,792 at the 2010 census. The town was founded as a necropolis in 1924....
. During seismic retrofitting in the 1990s, however, coffins and skeletal remains were unearthed.
The plaza and fountain in front of the Palace of the Legion of Honor is the western terminus of the Lincoln Highway
Lincoln Highway
The Lincoln Highway was the first road across the United States of America.Conceived and promoted by entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, the Lincoln Highway spanned coast-to-coast from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco, originally through 13 states: New York, New Jersey,...
, the first road across America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The terminus marker and an interpretive plaque are located in the southwest corner of the plaza and fountain, just to the left of the Palace.
Collections
The Legion of Honor displays a collection spanning more than 6,000 years of ancient and European art and houses the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts in a neoclassical building overlooking Lincoln Park and the Golden Gate Bridge.Ancient Art
The Ancient Art collection has been an integral part of both Fine Arts Museums since they were founded. M.H. de Young and Alma Speckles, the founders of the museums, furnished their institutions with a variety of ancient objects. The works they brought to their collections, and those that have been added over the years, cover broad geographical and chronological ranges within the ancient Mediterranean basin—primarily Egypt, the Near East, Greece, the Aegean Islands, Etruria, and Rome. The earliest pieces date to the fourth millennium B.C. and the latest to early Christian, Sasanian, and early Islamic periods, through the 14th century A.D.––a period of almost 6,000 years of art.
It is a relatively small collection, under 1,400 objects, containing a number of rare works of high quality and importance that form the basis for an introduction to the art of the cultures represented. They provide, in a coherent, aesthetically pleasing manner, splendid examples of the art of early civilizations. The collection also provides the foundation for the understanding of Western art and the procession of cultures through the ages. It illustrates the origins of later European and American art in the Museum’s collection in form, iconography, and materials by displaying sculpture, pottery, glass, decorative art, and painting.
The main strength of the collection lies in Greek vase painting, where over 100 examples represent most periods of Greek art from the prehistoric to the end of the classical age. Among the most important objects are nine carved ivory plaques and a palace wall relief from the 9th—7th-centuries B.C. Assyrian site of Nimrud, which epitomizes a high point in the history of Ancient Near Eastern art and have few equals in museum collections worldwide. The most recent acquisitions include an exquisitely carved Persian sculpture of an Offering Bearer (ca. 490–470 B.C.) from the fabled ancient site of Persepolis, which in style and form connects ancient Near Eastern art with the classical world.
Exhibitions add visibility to the permanent collection and Ancient Art shows have had wide appeal bringing in hundreds of thousands of visitors. The Department has organized and mounted world-renowned exhibitions that secure the Museum’s international reputation for scholarly excellence. Some of these enabled the Museum to foster and secure relationships with foreign cultural organizations, especially those in Europe and the Middle East.
European Art
The museum contains a representative collection of European art, the largest portion of which is French. Its most distinguished collection is of sculpture
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
by Auguste Rodin
Auguste Rodin
François-Auguste-René Rodin , known as Auguste Rodin , was a French sculptor. Although Rodin is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past...
. Casts of some of his most famous works are on display, including one of The Thinker
The Thinker
The Thinker is a bronze and marble sculpture by Auguste Rodin, whose first cast, of 1902, is now in the Musée Rodin in Paris; there are some twenty other original castings as well as various other versions, studies, and posthumous castings. It depicts a man in sober meditation battling with a...
in the Court of Honor. However there are individual works by many other artists, including François Boucher
François Boucher
François Boucher was a French painter, a proponent of Rococo taste, known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories representing the arts or pastoral occupations, intended as a sort of two-dimensional furniture...
, Rembrandt, Gainsborough
Thomas Gainsborough
Thomas Gainsborough was an English portrait and landscape painter.-Suffolk:Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, Suffolk. He was the youngest son of John Gainsborough, a weaver and maker of woolen goods. At the age of thirteen he impressed his father with his penciling skills so that he let...
, David
Jacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David was an influential French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era...
, El Greco
El Greco
El Greco was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El Greco" was a nickname, a reference to his ethnic Greek origin, and the artist normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος .El Greco was born on Crete, which was at...
, Rubens, and many of the Impressionists
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...
and post-Impressionists
Post-Impressionism
Post-Impressionism is the term coined by the British artist and art critic Roger Fry in 1910 to describe the development of French art since Manet. Fry used the term when he organized the 1910 exhibition Manet and Post-Impressionism...
—Degas
Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas[p] , born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, was a French artist famous for his work in painting, sculpture, printmaking and drawing. He is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism although he rejected the term, and preferred to be called a realist...
, Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty, and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Renoir is the final representative of a tradition which runs directly from Rubens to...
, Monet, Pissarro
Camille Pissarro
Camille Pissarro was a French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of St Thomas . His importance resides in his contributions to both Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, as he was the only artist to exhibit in both forms...
, Seurat, Cézanne and others. There are also representative works by key twentieth century figures such as Braque and Picasso, and works of contemporary artists like Gottfried Helnwein
Gottfried Helnwein
Gottfried Helnwein is an Austrian-Irish fine artist, painter, photographer, installation and performance artist.-Work:Helnwein studied at the University of Visual Art in Vienna...
and Robert Crumb
Robert Crumb
Robert Dennis Crumb —known as Robert Crumb and R. Crumb—is an American artist, illustrator, and musician recognized for the distinctive style of his drawings and his critical, satirical, subversive view of the American mainstream.Crumb was a founder of the underground comix movement and is regarded...
.
- St. Francis Venerating the Crucifix. El GrecoEl GrecoEl Greco was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El Greco" was a nickname, a reference to his ethnic Greek origin, and the artist normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος .El Greco was born on Crete, which was at...
, 1595 - St. John the Baptist. El GrecoEl GrecoEl Greco was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El Greco" was a nickname, a reference to his ethnic Greek origin, and the artist normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος .El Greco was born on Crete, which was at...
, 1600 - The Tribute Money. Peter Paul Rubens, 1612
- The Age of BronzeThe Age of BronzeThe Age of Bronze is a bronze statue by the French sculptor Auguste Rodin. The figure is of a life-size nude male. When first exhibited at the 1877 Salon in Paris, Rodin was falsely accused of having made the statue by casting a living model, a charge that was vigorously denied. This charge...
. Auguste RodinAuguste RodinFrançois-Auguste-René Rodin , known as Auguste Rodin , was a French sculptor. Although Rodin is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past...
, 1875 - Trotting Horse. Edgar DegasEdgar DegasEdgar Degas[p] , born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, was a French artist famous for his work in painting, sculpture, printmaking and drawing. He is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism although he rejected the term, and preferred to be called a realist...
, 1881 - The KissThe Kiss (Rodin sculpture)The Kiss is an 1889 marble sculpture by the French sculptor Auguste Rodin. Like many of Rodin's best-known individual sculptures, including The Thinker, the embracing couple depicted in the sculpture appeared originally as part of a group of reliefs decorating Rodin's monumental bronze portal The...
. Auguste RodinAuguste RodinFrançois-Auguste-René Rodin , known as Auguste Rodin , was a French sculptor. Although Rodin is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past...
, 1884 - The Grand Canal. Claude MonetClaude MonetClaude Monet was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. . Retrieved 6 January 2007...
, 1908 - Waterlilies. Claude MonetClaude MonetClaude Monet was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. . Retrieved 6 January 2007...
, 1914
Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts
Mr. and Mrs. Moore S. Achenbach created the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts in 1948, giving their personal collection of works on paper to the city of San Francisco. Over the 50 years previous, Mr. Achenbach strove to build a collection that systematically illustrated the entire development of the graphic arts, and in this pursuit he built a collection of reputedly more than 25,000 graphic works. When he donated it to the city, the collection was briefly placed in the San Francisco Public Library, but in 1950 it was moved to the Legion of Honor, where it remains to this day. This enormous collection became the foundation for the museum’s department of works on paper, which has the distinction of being the largest collection of works of art on paper in the western United States. Today the department’s holdings number more than 90,000 and cover the period from the end of the 15th century to the present time. Thanks to the Achenbach’s endowment bequest and gifts of other donors, the collection now consists of Old Master and 19th-century prints and drawings, Japanese prints, Indian miniatures, photography, modern and contemporary graphics, and artists’ books.
The Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts and the collections of works on paper of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco receive financial support for the department’s exhibitions, programs, and acquisitions from the Achenbach Graphic Arts Council, a member council of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
Symphonic organ
John D. Spreckels
John Diedrich Spreckels , the son of German-American industrialist Claus Spreckels, founded a transportation and real estate empire in San Diego, California in the late 19th and early 20th centuries...
commissioned the Ernest M. Skinner Company of Boston to build the symphonic organ
Symphonic organ
The symphonic organ is a style of pipe organ which flourished during the first third of the twentieth century in town halls and other secular public venues . It is a variation of the classical pipe organ intended for the performance of orchestral transcriptions, which are serious orchestral...
. The museum organ, which is housed inside the museum above the main galleries, has 4 manuals and pedals, 7 divisions, 63 ranks, with a total of 4,526 pipes. Symphonic music is especially effective on the museum organ with its battery of pneumatically-operated percussion instruments and set of tubular chimes. A thunder pedal is used for the musical representation of storms. All together, the organ comprises one Great Organ, a Swell Organ, a Choir Organ featuring a 16 foot Contra Dulciana, Choir Organ Echo, a Solo Organ, Solo Organ Echo, an Arch Organ outfitted with 8 foot Arch Clarion, a 64 foot Gravissima
Gravissima
Gravissima is an organ stop that is usually pitched at 64'. It is usually a resultant It is also usually the lowest stop in the organ that has one....
and a 32 foot Bourdon Profunda, in addition to the final Traps that were enclosed in the Choir: Bass drum, castanets, Chinese block, crash cymbal, gong snare drum (f), snare drum (ff), and a tambourine triangle.
Proponents have acclaimed that an instrument that is capable of producing these sounds, (similar to that of an orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
), is a work of art, no matter its outright visual appeal. The organ's console, made of mahogany, ivory, and ebony, is located in the A.B. and Alma de Bretteville Spreckels Rodin Gallery. The apse of the gallery is canvas, painted to look like marble in order to allow the organ to "speak" through the dome. The frieze over the main entrance to the museum is made of plaster and can be opened so that the music can be heard in the Court of Honor also containing ten large tubular chimes and a heroic fanfare register concealed behind doors that can be opened during performances. The museum hosts a weekly organ recital from 4:00-5:00pm every Saturday and Sunday.
Film Appearance
- The Palace is seen in the Alfred HitchcockAlfred HitchcockSir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
movie VertigoVertigo (film)Vertigo is a 1958 psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring James Stewart, Kim Novak, and Barbara Bel Geddes. The screenplay was written by Alec Coppel and Samuel A...
(1958) when Scottie follows Madeleine Elster to the museum, where she stares at one painting for a considerable time. - The Palace appears in the first Armistead MaupinArmistead MaupinArmistead Jones Maupin, Jr. is an American writer, best known for his Tales of the City series of novels, based in San Francisco.-Early life:...
Tales of the CityTales of the CityTales of the City refers to a series of eight novels written by American author Armistead Maupin. The stories from Tales were originally serialized prior to their novelization, with the first four titles appearing as regular installments in the San Francisco Chronicle, while the fifth appeared in...
books and mini-series. The character of Mary Ann Singleton (played by Laura LinneyLaura LinneyLaura Leggett Linney is an American actress of film, television, and theatre. Linney has won three Emmy Awards, two Golden Globes, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She has been nominated for three times for an Academy Award and once for a BAFTA Award...
) arranges to meet her neighbor Norman Neal Williams (played by Stanley DeSantisStanley DeSantisStanley DeSantis was an American actor and businessman. He appeared in 15 motion pictures, the last of which being The Aviator, in which he portrayed Louis B. Mayer. He also made many television appearances...
) at the museum, where he meets his fate.