Legion of Honor

My friend Erin from Boston gave us a very thoughtful wedding gift- a year long membership to two museums in San Francisco: De Young Museum and the Legion of Honor. I went to the De Young Museum back in October with my friend Lisa and as you can tell from its appearance, it is very modern. The Legion of Honor is the opposite- its exterior is completely classical and houses more of the ancient up to impressionist/post impressionist works.

Here is a view of the whole museum

As you enter the main courtyard, you are greeted by the Thinker reminding you to take time and truly ponder the art inside (or else at least look like you are doing some serious thinking)

It seems that they are trying to imitate the pyramid at the Louvre, but on a much smaller scale

I had only less than 2 hours to spend there so I only saw the special exhibit they have entitled "Marie Antoinette and the Petit Trianon at Versailles". The exhibit ends this upcoming weekend so I wanted to make sure that I was able to view it. I have been to Versailles twice, yet I have never had enough time to take the tours of the Petit Trianon and the Hamlet- I've only seen their exteriors. This exhibit had many of the artifacts from these venues as well as some of the history of their construction and usage. I didn't know that Louis XVI could only come to the Petit Trianon when Marie invited him and that this venue was initially created for the mistress of Louix XV. They had several videos and photos showing the layout of the articles in the rooms. What I thought was so ironic was that these were the "scaled down" versions of luxury and compared to the main palace at Versailles, I would say that they are, but they are still incredibly detailed and ornate. Particularly the room of Marie was in a garden theme and had intricate vines lining the chairs and golden basket weave around many of the items. Despite seeing this exhibit, I still think that I will need to go back one day and visit the actual sites . . . . but who knows when that will happen.

And some of the most beautiful views actually occurred outside of the museum. It is perched upon a hill and is surrounded by the ocean and the bay and has stunning views like this

And this is my favorite of the Golden Gate Bridge in its full glory

I will definitely be back several times to see the upcoming exhibit on the Dead Sea Scrolls as well as the permanent collection. I happened to walk through a room of Rodin and found that the museum owns over 80 of his works so I will DEFINITELY be coming back for an in depth visit with them. I really love this museum- it is definitely my favorite so far here in SF.