Legion of Honor (museum)

Last updated

Legion of Honor
Famsf-logo-2024.png
Palace Legion Honor SF (cropped).jpg
California Palace of the Legion of Honor
Legion of Honor (museum)
Interactive fullscreen map
Established1924;101 years ago (1924)
Location100 34th Avenue, San Francisco, California
CollectionsAncient artifacts; European art, crafts, ceramics, and furnishings; Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts
Architect George Applegarth and Henri Guillaume (1924), Edward Larrabee Barnes and Mark Cavagnero (1995)
Public transit access
Website legionofhonor.famsf.org

The Legion of Honor, formally known as the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, is an art museum in San Francisco, California. Located in Lincoln Park, the Legion of Honor is a component of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), which also administers the de Young Museum. [1] In 2024, the two combined museums were ranked 15th in the Washington Post's list of the best art museums in the U.S. [2]

Contents

History and building

The land on which the Legion of Honor stands was once the city-owned Golden Gate Cemetery, established in 1870 and closed in 1909. It held about 29,000 remains and included a Chinese burial ground and a Potter's field. [3]

The Legion of Honor was the gift of Alma de Bretteville Spreckels, wife of the sugar magnate and thoroughbred racehorse owner/breeder Adolph B. Spreckels. [4] : 9–10  After some persuading, Alma convinced Adolph to fund a museum project. To acquire more art and financial support, Alma embarked on to Europe and was successful in requesting donations of fine art from the French government and from Queen Marie of Romania, who donated a replica of her Byzantine Golden Room. [5]

The building is a full-scale replica, by George Applegarth and Henri Guillaume, of the French Pavilion at the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition, which in turn was a three-quarter-scale version of the Palais de la Légion d'Honneur (also known as the Hôtel de Salm) in Paris, by Pierre Rousseau (1782). At the close of the exposition, which was located just a few miles away, the French government granted Spreckels permission to construct a permanent replica of the French Pavilion. World War I delayed the groundbreaking until 1921. Dedicated as a memorial to California soldiers killed in the war, [4] : 7  the museum opened on Armistice Day, November 11, 1924. [6]

The museum building occupies an elevated site in Lincoln Park in the northwest of the city, with views over the nearby Golden Gate Bridge and the distant downtown skyline.

Between March 1992 and November 1995 the Legion underwent a major renovation that included seismic strengthening, building systems upgrades, restoration of historic architectural features, and an underground expansion that added 35,000 square feet. The Court of Honor was pierced by a pyramidal skylight opening onto the new gallery space below, a quotation in miniature of the Louvre Pyramid. The architects for the project were Edward Larrabee Barnes and Mark Cavagnero. [6]

The plaza and fountain in front of the Legion of Honor is the western terminus of the Lincoln Highway, the first improved road for automobiles across America. 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, next to the bus stop. Dominating the classical plaza is Pax Jerusalemme, a modern sculpture by Mark di Suvero that stirred controversy at its installation in 2000. [7] In 2023, US president Joe Biden held a state dinner at the Legion of Honor for world leaders, including Chinese president Xi Jinping. [8]

Collections

The Tribute Money, Peter Paul Rubens (c. 1610-15). The-tribute-money-c 1610-15--peter-paul-rubens--Legion of Honor--San Francisco.jpg
The Tribute Money, Peter Paul Rubens (c. 1610–15).

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.

The Hall of Antiquities displays ancient works from Egypt, the Near East, Greece, and Rome, including sculptures, figurines, vessels, jewelry, and carved reliefs. Notable works include a 4,000-year-old carved wood figure of Seneb, an Egyptian royal scribe. The collection is supported in part by the Ancient Art Council, which offers a speakers program focusing on the ancient world. [9] [10]

The museum contains a representative collection of European art, the largest portion of which is French. Its most distinguished collection is of sculpture by Auguste Rodin. Casts of some of his most famous works are on display, including one of The Thinker in the Court of Honor. Other artists in the collection include El Greco, Titian, Rubens, Rembrandt, Boucher, David, Tiepolo, Gainsborough and many of the Impressionists and post-Impressionists—Degas, Renoir, Monet, Pissarro, Seurat, Cézanne, van Gogh and others.

The Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts (AFGA) is responsible for the museum's collection of works on paper. With more than 90,000 items, the AFGA is the largest repository of works of art on paper in the western United States. The department is named for Moore and Hazel Achenbach, who gave the bulk of their collection to the city of San Francisco in 1948, and the remainder upon Moore Achenbach's death in 1963. Many additional acquisitions form the basis for special collections within the department, such as the Anderson Collection of Graphic Arts. [11] Selections from the Logan collection, more than 400 books dating from the nineteenth century to the present, are regularly used in exhibitions in the Reva and David Logan Gallery of Illustrated Books located in a small room off the Hall of Antiquities. [12]

The museum's collection of European Decorative Arts includes a gilded Spanish ceiling from c. 1500; numerous items of furniture, including Horace Walpole’s commode of 1763 from Strawberry Hill House, west of London; and three period rooms, including the Salon Doré from the Hôtel de La Trémoille, Paris, said to be the only complete example of a pre-Revolutionary Parisian salon to be displayed anywhere. [13] [14]

The Bowles Porcelain Gallery displays an array of porcelain and pottery from England and continental Europe with a strong emphasis on the eighteenth century. Adjacent to the gallery is the Ceramic Study Center. [15]

The Contemporary Arts Program, which brings the work of living artists into dialogue with the building and the collections, was inaugurated in 2017 with an exhibition of more than 30 works by Urs Fischer installed throughout the museum. [16] Subsequent exhibitions have featured works and interventions by artists including Lynn Hershman Leeson, [17] Julian Schnabel, [18] Alexandre Singh, [19] and Wangechi Mutu. [20]

Situated off the northwest corner of the Legion grounds is the Holocaust Memorial, a sculptural group of white-painted bronze by George Segal installed in 1984. Although not part of the Legion's collection, the sculpture is often seen by visitors to the museum.

Spreckels Organ and Gunn Theater

Spreckels Gallery with bronzes by Rodin. Bretteville Spreckels Gallery, Legion of Honor.jpg
Spreckels Gallery with bronzes by Rodin.

In 1924, John D. Spreckels commissioned the Ernest M. Skinner Company of Boston to build the symphonic organ, which is centrally located in the Spreckels Gallery (gallery 10). It was designed to blend into the museum's structure; its 4,500 pipes are not visible to visitors, hidden behind the trompe-l'œil ceiling painted to resemble a marble apse. [21] Organ concerts are performed every Saturday at 4:00 p.m. [22]

The 316-seat James A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Theater, located downstairs off the Hall of Antiquities, is a venue for chamber music concerts by the San Francisco Symphony and for lectures and other programs. Architect George Applegarth designed the circular theater and decorated it in the style of Louis XVI. The descending entrance stairways on either side are decorated with portraits by Nicolas de Largillière. [23] [24] The ceiling mural is The Apotheosis of the California Soldier by Spanish artist Julio Vila y Prades. [4] : 95 

Film appearances

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spreckels Organ</span> Pipe organ designed by Ernest M. Skinner

The Spreckels Organ is a pipe organ that was designed by Ernest M. Skinner. It was installed in 1924 at the Legion of Honor museum in San Francisco, California. Public performances are held on Saturdays, 4:00–4:45 pm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">De Young Museum</span> Art museum in San Francisco, US

The de Young Museum, formally the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, is a fine arts museum located in San Francisco, California, named for early San Francisco newspaperman M. H. de Young. Located in Golden Gate Park, it is a component of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, along with the Legion of Honor. In 2024, the two combined museums were ranked 15th in the Washington Post's list of the best art museums in the U.S.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco</span> De Young Museum and the Legion of Honor; largest public arts institution in San Francisco

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), comprising the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park and the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, is the largest public arts institution in the city of San Francisco. FAMSF's combined attendance was 1,158,264 visitors in 2022, making it the fifth most attended art institution in the United States. In 2024, the two combined museums were ranked 15th in the Washington Post's list of the best art museums in the U.S.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maryhill Museum of Art</span>

Maryhill Museum of Art is a small museum with an eclectic collection, located near what is now the community of Maryhill in the U.S. state of Washington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adolph B. Spreckels</span> American businessman (1857–1924)

Adolph Bernard Spreckels was a California businessman who ran the 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". His 1912 mansion is in Pacific Heights and is San Francisco Landmark #197.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alma de Bretteville Spreckels</span> American philanthropist (1881–1968)

Alma de Bretteville Spreckels was a wealthy socialite and philanthropist in San Francisco, California. She was known both as "Big Alma" and "The Great Grandmother of San Francisco". Among her many accomplishments, she persuaded her first husband, sugar magnate Adolph B. Spreckels, to donate the California Palace of the Legion of Honor to the city of San Francisco.

Fletcher C. Benton was an American sculptor and painter from San Francisco, California. Benton was widely known for his kinetic art as well as his large-scale steel abstract geometric sculptures.

Thomas Patrick Campbell is the director and CEO of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, overseeing the de Young and Legion of Honor museums. He served as the director and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art between 2009 and 2017. On 30 June 2017, Campbell stepped down as director and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art under pressure and accepted the Getty Foundation's Rothschild Fellowship for research and study at both the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and at Waddesdon Manor, in the UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Serge Ivanoff</span> Russian painter

Serge Petrovitch Ivanoff was a French painter of Russian origin.

Roland Conrad Petersen is a Danish-born American painter, printmaker, and professor. His career spans over 50 years, primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area and is perhaps best-known for his "Picnic series" beginning in 1959 to today. He is part of the Bay Area Figurative Movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur Putnam</span> American artist

Arthur Putnam was an American sculptor and animalier who was recognized for his bronze sculptures of wild animals. Some of his artworks are public monuments. He was a well-known figure, both statewide and nationally, during the time he lived in California. Putnam was regarded as an artistic genius in San Francisco and his life was chronicled in the San Francisco and East Bay newspapers. He won a gold medal at the 1915 San Francisco world's fair, officially known as the Panama–Pacific International Exposition, and was responsible for large sculptural works that stand in San Francisco and San Diego. Putnam exhibited at the Armory Show in 1913, and his works were also exhibited in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Paris, and Rome.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Betty Merken</span> American painter

Betty Merken is an American painter and printmaker who lives and works in Seattle, Washington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Howard Hack</span> American painter (1932–2015)

Howard Edwin Hack was an American representational painter and graphic artist, with works in numerous museum collections. Known for an innovative approach to a variety of media, as well as use of traditional oil paints, Hack began working in the late 1940s. He was active in the San Francisco Bay Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kay Sekimachi</span> American fiber artist and weaver (born 1926)

Kay Sekimachi is an American fiber artist and weaver, best known for her three-dimensional woven monofilament hangings as well as her intricate baskets and bowls.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Albert Harris</span> American painter

George Albert Harris, also known as George Harris (1913–1991), was an American painter, muralist, lithographer, and educator. He was a participant in the WPA Federal Art Project and was among the youngest artists on the mural project at Coit Tower. Harris' style is California Modernism, often working in abstraction, focusing primarily on still lifes and portraits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Stafford Duncan</span> American painter

Charles Stafford Duncan (1892–1952) was a San Francisco painter and lithographer perhaps best known for his mural in the Paramount Theatre in Oakland, California. He won the Benjamin Altman Prize from the National Academy of Design in 1937.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helen Phillips (artist)</span> American sculptor, printmaker and graphic artist

Helen Elizabeth Phillips, also known as Helen Phillips Hayter was an American sculptor, printmaker, and graphic artist active in San Francisco, New York, and Paris. During her life, she contributed to various avant-gardes of the 20th century, with a personal, de-conditioned vision, which evolved from the surrealist practices the 30s to the adoption of a repeated geometric unit to express the three-dimensional movement in sculpture. Her biomorphic, hermetic imaginary, her use of positive and negative spaces in both sculpture and printmaking, and her strong, pure color, opened new paths in artistic expression.

Stephanie Skalisky is an American artist who is best known for her series of works she made while working for The New Yorker as a cartoonist.

Richard Benefield is executive director of the George Rickey Foundation, Inc., as well as an independent consultant to museums and educational organizations including the Heard Museum, University of Arizona, and Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. He previously held director positions at The David Hockney Foundation, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, The Walt Disney Family Museum, and Harvard University Art Museums.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Brokl</span> American artist and activist

Robert Brokl is an American visual artist and activist based in the Bay Area, known for expressive woodblock printmaking and painting that has focused on the figure, landscape and travel for subject matter. His visual language combines the influences of German Expressionism, Japanese woodblock printing and the Bay Area Figurative Movement with a loosely autobiographical, Romantic interest in representing authentic personal experience, inner states and nature. Critics and curators characterize his style by its graphic line, expressive gestural brushwork, tactile surfaces and sensitivity to color, mood and light.

References

  1. ↑ "About the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco". www.famsf.org.
  2. ↑ Sebastian Smee and Philip Kennicott (October 24, 2024). "The 20 best art museums in America". www.washingtonpost.com. Retrieved December 24, 2024.
  3. ↑ Winegarner, Beth (September 26, 2022). "The Hidden History of San Francisco's Graveyards". Alta Online. Retrieved October 24, 2022.
  4. 1 2 3 Legion of Honor: Inside and Out. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 2013.
  5. ↑ "Mrs. A.B. Spreckels to Study Women Workers In Europe as America's Special Agent" (PDF). The New York Times . July 12, 1922. Retrieved January 10, 2008.
  6. 1 2 "History of the Legion of Honor". legionofhonor.famsf.org. Archived from the original on September 12, 2013. Retrieved November 3, 2019.
  7. ↑ Baker, Kenneth (July 16, 2000). "A Legion of Concerns Over Sculpture / Di Suvero's mediocre 'Pax Jerusalem' may signal a troubling trend at Fine Arts Museums". San Francisco Chronicle.
  8. ↑ Gaus, Annie. "World Leaders Party at Rain-Soaked Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco". The San Francisco Standard. Retrieved December 29, 2023.
  9. ↑ "Ancient Art" . Retrieved September 4, 2019.
  10. ↑ "Ancient Art Council".
  11. ↑ "Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts" . Retrieved September 4, 2019.
  12. ↑ "Reva and David Logan Collection of Illustrated Books" . Retrieved September 11, 2019.
  13. ↑ "European Decorative Arts" . Retrieved September 6, 2019.
  14. ↑ "The Salon Doré" . Retrieved September 6, 2019.
  15. ↑ "The Bowles Porcelain Gallery" . Retrieved September 4, 2019.
  16. ↑ "Urs Fischer: The Public and the Private" . Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  17. ↑ "Lynn Hershman Leeson: VertiGhost" . Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  18. ↑ "Julian Schnabel: Symbols of Actual Life" . Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  19. ↑ "Alexandre Singh: A Gothic Tale" . Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  20. ↑ "Wangechi Mutu: I Am Speaking, Are You Listening?" . Retrieved October 17, 2021.
  21. ↑ "The Spreckels Organ". famsf.org. Retrieved November 22, 2022.
  22. ↑ "Organ Concert". famsf.org. Retrieved November 27, 2022.
  23. ↑ "Portrait of a Gentleman" . Retrieved September 13, 2019.
  24. ↑ "Portrait of a Lady" . Retrieved September 13, 2019.
  25. ↑ "Lights, Camera, Action! Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo at the Legion of Honor" . Retrieved September 10, 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.