Displaying items by tag: legion of honor

Born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, Abraham-Louis Breguet hailed from a bourgeois Protestant family that included several lawyers, teachers, pastors and merchants, but his own journey as a watchmaker began in his teens after his mother remarried one upon his father’s death.

Sent to Paris at the age of 15, he set up his atelier in 1775 on the Ile de la Cité and began his career with a series of inventions, including the automatic watch (known as perpétuelle), the gong spring for repeater watches, and the first shock-absorber device (the pare-chute).

From lavish gowns to little black dresses to practical sportswear to a creepy-crawly necklace, fashion is the subject of a comprehensive art show and chic adventure at the Legion of Honor.

“High Style” covers the evolution of modern women’s clothing design through displays of 65 dressed mannequins and 35 accessories from the Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Dating from 1910 to 1980, these pieces include seminal designs by luminaries from the French couture houses and by celebrated and lesser-known American artists. Special presentations salute Britain-born American designer Charles James and some of American fashion design’s leading women.

If you are a fan of “Downton Abbey,” you won’t want to miss “Houghton Hall: Portrait of an English Country House” at San Francisco’s Legion of Honor before it closes Jan. 18.

Built in Norfolk in the 1720s for England’s first prime minister, Sir Robert Walpole, Houghton Hall features grand rooms designed by architect William Kent to house Walpole’s Old Master paintings, elegant furniture (some designed by Kent to go with the rooms), elaborate tapestries and Roman antiquities. Many of these rooms are recreated at the Legion as settings for luxurious furniture, silver and china, and paintings by English artists Thomas Gainsborough and William Hogarth.

While many San Francisco institutions have banned Google Glass over the course of 2014 — the fine art museums of San Francisco are embracing the face computers. According to a press release, the de Young and Legion of Honor are incorporating the Google Glass experience into their exhibits, and first up is the new Keith Haring show; GuidiGO will provide access to in-depth interviews, audio recordings, and videos via the face computers — because reading the plaques and listening to the audio tour is pretty much akin to walking around with a newspaper and a walkman. 

The press release goes on to state: 

“'Wearing Glass in the gallery is like embarking on a multimedia journey, with visual archives, contextual music and testimonials revealing the artworks’ hidden stories. Within minutes, visitors completely forget they are even wearing Glass, as the screen subtly turns on only when needed,' said David Lerman, CEO of GuidiGO."

The Legion of Honor in San Francisco is currently hosting the exhibition “Intimate Impressionism,” which features nearly 70 Impressionist and Post-Impressionist landscapes, seascapes, still lifes, interiors, and portraits from the collections of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Masterpieces by Paul Cezanne, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Alfred Sisley are on view.

The sweeping exhibition offers glimpses into the artists’ processes and highlights their inspirations, favorite subjects, and individual perspectives. For instance, a section of the show explores how Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, and Sisley were motivated by their plein-air predecessors when painting the natural world. Depictions of artists’ studios, domestic interiors, and family members further deepen connections between the artists, their works, and the audience.

The exhibition, which will remain on view at the Legion of Honor through August 3, was made possible by the closure of the National Gallery’s East Building for a major renovation and expansion project.    

Although he was one of the most celebrated portrait painters at the turn of the 20th century, Swedish artist Anders Zorn is not widely recognized today.The National Academy in New York aims to highlight many rarely seen works by Zorn in the exhibition “Anders Zorn: Sweden’s Master Painter.” Zorn, who rivaled John Singer Sargent as the most sought-after portraitist of members of high society, was an accomplished watercolorist and etcher.

The exhibition features 90 rarely seen works including watercolors, etchings, and sculptures drawn from public and private collections throughout Europe and the United States. Before traveling to the National Academy, the exhibition went on view at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.

“Anders Zorn: Sweden’s Master Painter” will remain on view at the National Academy through May 18, 2014.

Although he was one of the most celebrated portrait painters of his era, Swedish artist Anders Zorn is not widely recognized today. San Francisco’s Legion of Honor aims to highlight many rarely seen works by Zorn in the exhibition ‘Anders Zorn: Sweden’s Master Painter.’

Zorn, who rivaled John Singer Sargent as the most sought-after portraitist of the members of high society including presidents, industry giants, and various other aristocrats, was also an accomplished watercolorist and etcher. The Legion of Honor’s exhibition features 100 works by the artist from public and private collections throughout Europe and the United States and spans Zorn’s prolific career.

‘Anders Zorn: Sweden’s Master Painter’ will be on view at the Legion of Honor through February 2, 2014.

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco announced that they will hold two exhibitions presenting works from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Intimate Impressionism from the National Gallery of Art, which will be held at the Legion of Honor, will feature the works of pioneering 19th century painters such as Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Modernism from the National Gallery of Art: The Robert & Jane Meyerhoff Collection, which will go on view at the de Young Museum, will highlight postwar masters such as Ellsworth Kelly, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, and Frank Stella. The National Gallery of Art is currently renovating its East Building galleries, making these exhibitions possible.

Intimate Impressionism, which features works from the private collections formed by Ailsa Mellon Bruce and Paul Mellon, the two children of National Gallery founder Andrew Mellon, will be on view from March 9, 2014 through August 3, 2014.

The de Young is the exclusive venue for Modernism from the National Gallery of Art, which will mark the first time that the Meyerhoff Collection has been seen outside the greater Washington, D.C. and Baltimore metro area. The exhibition will be on view from June 7, 2014 through October 12, 2014. 

When the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art closes on June 2, 2013 for three years worth of renovations and an expansion, the institution will send some of its treasured holdings away. 23 masterpieces by Henri Matisse (1869-1954) won’t have far to travel as they will be exhibited at the Legion of Honor, San Francisco’s museum of European paintings and sculpture.

The Matisse works headed to the Legion of Honor include 16 paintings, 4 sculptures, and 3 works on paper, which will hang in one of the museum’s ground-floor galleries alongside two paintings already in the Legion’s collection. The only Matisse painting that will remain off view is Femme au Chapeau (1905) as the terms of its bequest by philanthropist Elise S. Haas state that the painting cannot travel.

Although details are still vague, the Legion of Honor will host two relevant shows while exhibiting the Matisse works – one will be a retrospective of Matisse’s older contemporary, Anders Zorn (1860-1920), and the other will be a survey of French paintings on loan from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Paris’ Musee du Louvre and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, which includes the Legion of Honor and the de Young Museum, announced that they have reached a mutual agreement and will collaborate on a series of exhibitions and exchanges. The institutions will share works from their incendiary collections over the course of the next five years including antiquities, paintings, decorative arts, prints, drawings, textiles, and sculptures.

The Louvre and Fine Arts Museums have been working on the arrangement for the past two years and will celebrate its commencement with the exhibition, Royal Treasures from the Louvre: Louis XIV to Marie-Antoinette. The show, which opened on November 17 and features a collection of decorative arts from the French monarchy, will be on view through March 17, 2013.

The agreement will allow each world-renowned institution to broaden their international reach and inhabitants of each city will have a new selection of masterpieces to view. Loans between the museums may include entire exhibitions or single objects.