Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco

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 Legion d'Honneur in Paris.
Palace of the Legion of Honor Map
Important Information:
Official site: legionofhonor.famsf.org
Address: 100 34th Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94121-1677, United States
Opening hours: 9:30am-5:15pm; Closed: Mon
Always closed on: New Year's Day (Jan 1), Thanksgiving - USA (4th Thursday, Nov), Christmas - Christian (Dec 25)
Entrance fee in USD: Adult $10.00, Senior over 65 $7.00, Child 17 & under $6.00, Child 12 & under FREE
Useful tips: Admission is free on first Tuesday of each month. Admission includes admittance to M.H. de Young Memorial Museum on the same day.
Facilities: Restaurant or food service
Transit: Bus: 2, 38.
It was a gift from the German American Adolph B. Spreckels to his wife Alma, nee 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 description.
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.

Palace of the Legion of Honor Highlight

Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts

The Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts is yet another attraction of the California Palace. It comprises a collection of graphic works amounting to more than 100,000 sheets dating from the 15th century to the 20th century, and was presented to the city by Mr Moore Achenbach and his wife Sadie, whose wish was that it should be housed here.
Valuable illustrated books and a library of some 3,000 volumes relating to the graphic arts form part of the collection.
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