Pissarro's People
Camille Pissarro had a unique and lifelong interest in the human figure. From his earliest years in the Caribbean and Venezuela until his death in Paris in 1903, Pissarro drew, painted, and made prints featuring human subjects from every walk of life, which outnumber the figural works of his colleagues Monet and Sisley. Pissarro's People celebrates the painter's humanism in all its aspects and brings together nearly 100 works of art, including some 37 paintings and numerous works on paper made over the course of his entire career.
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Pissarro's People at the Legion of Honor this Fall
Pissarro's People was organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. It is supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. The Grand Patron is Jeannik Méquet Littlefield. Education Sponsors are Denise Littlefield Sobel, Wells Fargo, and the S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation. Sponsors are Nan and Ransom Cook, Raj and Helen Desai, and Charles and Ann Johnson. The catalogue is published with the assistance of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Endowment for Publications.
Jeannik Méquet Littlefield
Education Sponsors
S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation
Denise Littlefield Sobel
Dr. N. L. Ascher
Nan and Ransom Cook
L: Camille Pissarro, Jeanne Pissarro, Called Cocotte, Reading, 1899. Oil on canvas. Collection of Ann and Gordon Getty. R: Camille Pissarro, Apple Harvest, 1888. Dallas Museum of Art, Munger Fund, 1955.17.M
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Dutch and Flemish Masterworks from the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection
July 9, 2011 – October 2, 2011
One of the finest collections of 17th-century Dutch Old Masters belongs not to a museum, but to Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo, who have been called "the most important collectors you've never heard of." Masterworks from this collection are constantly sought-after for American and international exhibitions. The selection of paintings includes premier examples of quintessentially Dutch subjects—from portraits and still lifes to landscapes and charming scenes of everyday life.
Adults $15, seniors 65+ $12, youths 13–17 and students with current ID $11, and members and children 12 and under free
Rarely Seen Masterworks from the Dutch Golden Age on View at the Legion of Honor This Summer
Dutch and Flemish Masterworks from the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection is organized by the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, in conjunction with the Mauritshuis, The Hague.
Major Foundation Support
Richard C. von Hess Foundation
Phoebe Cowles
J. Burgess and Elizabeth B. Jamieson
The Samuel H. Kress Foundation
Circle of Friends in honor of Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo
Additional support provided by the Netherland-America Foundation in honor of Frederik J. Duparc. The exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and Humanities.
Gerrit Dou (1613–1675), Sleeping Dog (detail), 1650. Oil on panel, 6 ½ x 8 ½ inches. The Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection. Image courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
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Interview with the Conservation Interns
Submitted by KMincey on March 15, 2011 - 3:14pm
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Reading the Floating World: Japanese Ukiyo-e Books from the Collection of Arthur Tress
The Reva and David Logan Gallery of Illustrated Books
March 5, 2011 – July 24, 2011
The flowering of popular culture during Japan's Edo period (1600–1868) brought about a revolution in Japanese publishing and the art of the book. With prosperity and the spread of literacy, particularly among the merchant class, a great variety of reading material developed, including illustrated books of poetry, legends and folk-tales, romances, and travel guides.
Utagawa Kunisada, Lovers, in the book An Appraisal of Sensual Pleasure (Shiki no nagame). Color woodcut, ca. 1830s. Collection of Arthur Tress
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Rupert Garcia: The Magnolia Editions Projects 1991–2011
February 19, 2011 – July 17, 2011
Renowned Bay Area artist Rupert Garcia is committed to creating artwork not only as a means of achieving aesthetic ends, but also as a viable way of addressing social and political concerns. Through his bold silkscreens and layered pastels and paintings, Garcia catalyzes discussion and debate in a broad audience about the pressing issues that have faced the late 20th and early 21st centuries. His recent editions elaborate on his political concerns, as well as addressing his interest in challenging notions of folk and high art.
Obama from Douglass, 2010. Pigmented inkjet. Printed and published by Magnolia Editions Inc., Oakland. Courtesy of the artist and Magnolia Editions.
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May 7, 2011 – June 5, 2011
The Magna Carta (or Great Charter of English Liberties), one of the most important legal documents in the history of democracy, is on display at the Legion of Honor May 7–June 5. The document is presented in Gallery 3 under a Spanish ceiling dating from approximately 1500. The Magna Carta coming to San Francisco belongs to the Bodleian Library in Oxford, England, and is one of four surviving manuscripts from the revised 1217 issue.
On loan from the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, and made possible thanks to the generosity of Qualcomm, Irwin and Joan Jacobs, and John Wiley and Sons.
Magna Carta (detail), 1217. Bodleian Library, Oxford
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Marvelous Menagerie: A Roman Mosaic from Lod, Israel
April 23, 2011 – July 24, 2011
First unearthed in 1996 in a rescue excavation in Lod, ancient Diospolis, Israel, this large and extraordinarily detailed mosaic floor has only recently been carefully removed from its site and conserved. Found in a large villa believed to belong to a wealthy Roman, the excellently preserved mosaic floor dates to about AD 300. Two rectangular end panels flank a large square medallion. The medallion and one of the end panels contain depictions of delightful animals and exotic beasts.
Lod Mosaic Comes to the Legion of Honor
Marvelous Menagerie: A Roman Mosaic is organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Israel Antiquities Authority from the collections of the National Treasures.
Lead Patron
The Selz Foundation
Bernard Osher Jewish Philanthropies Foundation of the Jewish Community Endowment Fund
Concepcion S. and Irwin Federman
Alexander M. & June L. Maisin Supporting Foundation of the Jewish Community Endowment Fund
The Laszlo N. Tauber Family Foundation
Mosaic floor side panel with hexagonal medallions, Roman, ca. AD 300. Excavated at Lod (Lydda), Israel. Stone tesserae, 13 feet x 5 feet 3 inches. Israel Antiquities Authority and the Shelby White and Leon Levy Lod Mosaic Center. Image courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority
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Arthur Szyk: Miniature Paintings and Modern Illuminations
December 4, 2010 – March 27, 2011
Arthur Szyk (American, b. Poland, 1894–1951) is best remembered for his diverse work as an artist and illustrator, from pochoir illustrations for traditional Jewish and Polish folktales and religious texts to watercolor designs for political cartoons that were regularly featured on the cover of Collier's magazine throughout the 1930s and '40s. Szyk's Polish and Jewish heritage remained central, and his attention to detail betrayed considerable historical research into his craft.
Arthur Szyk: Miniature Paintings and Modern Illuminations at the Legion of Honor
Arthur Szyk: Miniature Paintings and Modern Illuminations is organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
Lead exhibition support is provided by the Koret Foundation and the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life and Culture of the Jewish Community Endowment Fund.
Additional support for the exhibition is provided by Bernard and Barbro Osher.
Left: King and Queen of the Roses, illustration for the chapter titled Little Ida's Flowers in Anderson's Fairy Tales (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1945). Watercolor and opaque watercolor. Collection of Irvin Ungar. Center: Arthur Szyk, Paris, 1930s. Photo credit: Louvre Studio. Right: King George VI, 1938. Transparent and opaque watercolor. Collection of Irvin Ungar
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Aspects of Mount Fuji in Japanese Illustrated Books from the Arthur Tress Collection
September 11, 2010 – February 20, 2011
Noted photographer Arthur Tress (b. 1940) began collecting Japanese books in the fall of 1965 when he was a student at the Zen study center associated with the Shōkoku-ji temple in Kyoto. "After classes I would wander the back alleys behind the school, and I accidentally came upon a small, dilapidated secondhand bookstore that was filled from floor to ceiling with thousands of ragged old Japanese books for only a few dollars each," he recalls. "I was enchanted by the lovely, soft paper and bold illustrations [that were] often by important ukiyo-e artists such as Utamaro and Hokusai.
Hokusai, Untitled (Fuji Seen from Above the Waves), [detail] from the book One Hundred Views of Fuji, 1835. Collection of Arthur Tress
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Pulp Fashion: The Art of Isabelle de Borchgrave
February 5, 2011 – June 12, 2011
Belgian artist Isabelle de Borchgrave is a painter by training, but textile and costume are her muses. Working in collaboration with leading costume historians and young fashion designers, de Borchgrave crafts a world of splendor from the simplest rag paper.
Admission to Pulp Fashion is $15 adults, $12 seniors 65+, $11 youth 6–17 and college students with ID, and free for children under 6 and members.
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Pulp Fashion: The Art of Isabelle de Borchgrave at the Legion of Honor
Pulp Fashion: The Art of Isabelle de Borchgrave is organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and sponsored by Lonna Wais. Additional support is provided by Nathalie and Garry McGuire and Elizabeth W. Vobach. Collection Connections is made possible by The Annenberg Foundation. The exhibition catalogue is supported in part by a grant from Friends of Fiber Art International.
Eleanor of Toledo (and detail), 2006, inspired by a ca. 1545 portrait of Eleanor and her son Giovanni de' Medici by Agnolo Bronzino in the collection of the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Photo: René Stoeltie
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