SAN FRANCISCO LEGION OF HONOUR - SPRECKELS COLLECTION

www.thinker.org

Miss Eve Fairfax (La Nature)
ca. 1904, marble

The Legion´s website givesa partial list of full size (meaning: enlarged - HdR) bronze casts of the Thinker:

Baltimore Museum of Art
Baltimore, MD
Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, OH
Columbia University
New York, NY
Detroit Institute of Art
Detroit, MI
Norton Simon Museum
Pasadena, CA
Rodin Museum
Philadelphia, PA
Stanford University
Stanford, CA
University of Louisville
Louisville, KY
Walters Art Gallery
Baltimore, MD

Outside the US:

City Museum of Kyoto, Japan
Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Germany
Musee Rodin, Meudon, France
Musee Rodin, Paris, France
National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, Japan
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek
Copenhagen, Denmark
Prince Eugen Museum
Stockholm, Sweden
Pushkin Museum
Moscow, Russia

Kirili: A Dialogue with Rodin
1 Oct. 1999 - 2 Jan. 2000:

The exhibition showed 19 works by contemporary French sculptor Alain Kirili displayed in conjunction and "in dialogue" with works in the Legion of Honor's collection of Rodin sculpture. Kirili's abstract sculptures are ranging in size from 15 inches to over life size and fashioned from forged steel, iron, aluminum, terra cotta.

The show was organized by Dr. Steven A. Nash, Chief Curator and Associate Director of the Fine Arts Museums.

The Legion of Honor, San Francisco

100 34th Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94121 USA

Tel. 001 - 415 - 863 33 30 (Museum Hotline)
Guestbook: guestbook@www.famsf.org

The Legion of Honor (as part of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco) also has a significant collection of Rodin works.Here, the collection - like the California Palace building itself - is based on donations by Alma de Bretteville Spreckels and her husband, the sugar magnate.

Alma was introduced to Rodin by their mutual friend, the dancer Loïe Fuller.A 1904 cast of The Thinker and a cast of John the Baptist were two of the earliest acquisitions (1915) of Rodin sculptures that Alma Spreckels purchased, mostly from Rodin himself, who helped her select works from his studio, shortly before his death in 1917.

Rodin on his Deathbed
Anna E. Klumpke, 1917

During a period of nearly 35 years, Alma continued to expand her collection, finally comprising more than 80 bronze and marble sculptures, plasters and terracottas. Through her donations, she wanted to make Art accessible to a broad public.

The Legions of Honor Website has an online searchable catalogue of the Museum´s collection (75,000 items)It includes ca. 90 Rodin-related images, including some non-authentic drawings and copies after Rodin.

Some highlights from the permanent collection:

   The Age of Bronze, ca. 1875-777, bronze,
      H. 71¼", purchased in 1914

  The Severed Head of St. John
    The Kiss, ca. 1884, bronze

   Bust of Victor Hugo, 1883, bronze, mounted on
     rock base, H. of bronze 16"

   Bust of Victor Hugo, 1883, marble, H. 41½"

   Bust of Severine, circa 1893

   Triumphant Youth, 1894, bronze, H. 20½"
     (green patina)

   Study for the Balzac Head, 1897, bronze,
     7 3/8 x 8 1/8 x 6 3/8", purchased before Rodin´s
     death (dark brown patina)

   Study for the Balzac Head, Version X, 1897, H. 7"

   Miss Eve Fairfax (La Nature), ca. 1904, marble,
     carved 1917 (last version) (see also:
     Johannesburg Art Gallery and Museo Nazionale,
     Rome)

   Mask of Hanako, 1908-11, bronze, H. 6½"

  Jacques de Caso and Patricia B. Sanders,
Rodin's sculpture: a critical analysis of the Spreckels Collection, San Francisco Fine Art Museums, 1977.

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Last update of this page: 19.09.2003