San Francisco - Palace of the Legion of Honor

No other museum outside France has so comprehensive a collection of French art as the California Palace of the Legion of Honor. Today it forms part of the museum's collection of European art from the Middle Ages to the early 20th century.

The Neo-Classical building, delightfully situated on a hill in Lincoln Park in the northwest of the city, is a copy of the Palais de la LGgion d'Honneur in Paris. It was a gift from the German American Adolph B. Spreckels to his wife Alma, nGe Bretteville.

Although the original intention was that the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, opened in 1924, should be devoted exclusively to French art, in the course of time it became endowed with works by artists of other nationalities. When, in 1972, it was decreed, as a cost-saving measure, that the California Palace of the Legion of Honor should be combined with the de Young Museum - both being the responsibility of the city - the non-French works were transferred to the de Young Museum which in turn handed over its French objets d'art to the California Palace. Since then both have undergone further reorganization with European art now concentrated in the California Palace and U.S. American art in the de Young Museum. The museum has the munificence of three families - the Spreckels, the Huntingdons and the Williams - to thank for the greater part of its collection: Mr and Mrs Adolph Spreckels donated mainly 18th c. works, together with original bronze castings by Rodin. Mr and Mrs Archer B. Huntingdon bequeathed furniture, tapestries and a number of paintings. In 1944 Mr and Mrs H. K. S. Williams not only gave the museum a comprehensive collection of French art but also made available a large sum of money for the purchase of further works of art from France.

Collection

A detailed account of the collection is beyond the scope of this book although some idea of its range is conveyed by the accompanying floor plan of the museum.

Special mention should be made of an Angers tapestry made in 1380 and a complete 18th century interior from the "Hötel d'Humières" in Paris; also the paintings by Fra Angelico, Titian, El Greco, Tiepolo and Dutch masters such as Rubens, Hals, Van Dyke and Brueghel, and sculptures by Houdon, Canova and Rodin. In addition to these are works by major French painters such as Claude Lorrain, Nicolas Poussin, Georges de La Tour, François Boucher, Jean-HonorG Fragonard, Jean-Antoine Watteau, Louis David, Camille Corot, Gustave Courbet, Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet and Claude Monet.