The museum's main floor starts off the tour with a collection of royal memorabilia...
...from Queen Marie of Romania (1875–1938), a friend of Sam Hill’s.
The painting above is of Tsar Nicholas that had been damaged and later repaired.
In fact Queen Marie delivered $1.5 million in paintings and statuary for the museum's Romanian Room, along with carved furniture from Castle Bran in the Carpathian mountains of northern Romania and manuscripts of her writings in her own hand. Queen Marie also donated the cloth-of-gold gown she wore to the 1896 coronation of her cousins Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra of Russia.
It is amazing the beauty in just the first room of the museum.
Included in the collection are the queen’s coronation gown, crown, silverware, gilt furniture, jewelry and other memorabilia.
jewelry and other memorabilia.
... jewelry and other memorabilia.
The large painting in the center is Solitude by Lord Fredric Leighton. I've searched his work on the Internet in the past and love it all. My favorite of Leighton is Flaming June.
Maryhill writes the following about these Icons:
"To the Orthodox believer, these venerated objects provide a window to heaven, a continuum which connects the secular world with the heavenly realm. These Orthodox icons are revered for both their artistic and spiritual significance."
In the Icon room my favorite was this particular piece.
This is one of several old photographs of some workmen on one of Sam Hills many projects building roads,
I have a fascination for winding stairwells, so I'll call this my creative shot of the day.
Prepared to be pleasantly surprised by Théâtre de la Mode. The museum writes this about the exhibit:
"The fashions of post-World War II France are highlighted in this 1946 exhibit, which shows one-third human size mannequins wearing fashions created by the country’s finest designers. After their premiere in Paris they toured Europe then America. The last stop of the original 1946 international tour of Théâtre de la Mode was San Francisco where the mannequins remained until the early 1950s. At that time they were acquired by Maryhill Museum of Art. They went on a second world tour in the 1990s visiting Paris, New York, Baltimore, Portland and Tokyo."
There are nine different sets on rotation and three available for viewing when we were there.
On view were Jean Cocteau’s Ma Femme est une Sorcière (My Wife is a Witch), A Tribute to Renè Clair. There was also and Jean Saint-Martin’s Croquis de Paris (Paris Sketch), both originally created in 1945 and re-created in 1990 by Anne Surgers. Also on view was Scène du Rue (Street Scene) created by Anne Surgers in 1990 as a replacement for Georges Wakhevitch’s set The Port of Nowhere, 1945.
Loïe Fuller (1863 – 1928) was a pioneer of modern dance whose influence sparked a new generation of dancers in the early 1900’s. Her circle of friends included artists, politicians and royalty, and it was Loïe that convinced Sam Hill to turn his mansion into an art museum. The exhibit includes art nouveau posters like the one above, photographs, glasswork and memorabilia like ...
... this beautiful bronze piece.
... this beautiful bronze piece.
The art and cultures of the indigenous peoples of North America are represented in this collection.
The exhibit features ancient petrogylphs...
...and other artifacts like this collection of weapons...
... and this one of woven baskets.
There are several alcoves with some of the best Native American objects I've ever seen.
Sharyn is our family historian and her love of cultural history is surpassed only by her ability to understand the timelines of civilization.
This section displayed some beautiful Native American dresses.
I really enjoyed the Chess Sets and while were pieces without the board...
... other sets were laid out waiting for the game to begin.
The Museum writes:
A 1957 exhibit curated by the museum’s director Clifford Dolph led to the creation of this permanent exhibit of chess sets. Today there are about 100 sets of these sculptures in miniature, representing the many countries, cultures and periods in which chess has been played.
This blog doesn't come close to showing all the sets...
... in fact, there were others I wanted to show but just ran out of room in the blog.
This painting, The Next Move, by Dede McKay is an Acrylic created in 1992 and was a gift from the artist to the Museum.
Like I said this is a small part of the collection but if you come to see them in person prepared to be amazed.
Now these are really wild chess pieces.
Just passed the Chess sets was the Auguste Rodin exhibit ...
... and it's focal piece Eve...
... and the first Rodin I ever saw as a teenager The Thinker.
This bust by Rodin is of Henri de Rochfort-Luçay gifted polemical journalist under the Second Empire and the Third Republic who distinguished himself, at first, as a supporter of the extreme left and later as a champion of the extreme right.
There are several pieces in this section...
... Je Suis Belle (I Am Beautiful) by Rodin derives its title from the poem Beauty by Charles Baudelare
Studies for Vase of Titans was a special exhibit that showed the creation and the steps it took to create the figures on the final piece.
At the entrance as were were leaving I got this shot of a Sam Hill plaque near the front door and wondered what it would have been like to know the man who created the empire that left this fascinating museum and the American Stonehenge Memorial.
I wonder if he realized the energy that would be created from his wind whipped land...
... or this great gift so well maintained and added to by staff and artists who contribute.
So as we left we stopped at the foot of the Sam Hill Memorial Bridge to buy some cherries and admire this car that looks so much like my father's old Plymouth that took me on my first date with Sharyn.
Scrabble Score -
The condender wins by 12 in a ghard fought battle with an assist on a high value play by Scrabble Queen.
Quote of the Day
"For I, to fold enchantment round their hearts,
Have pools of light where beauty flames and dies,
The placid mirrors of my luminous eyes."
~ from the poem Beauty by Charles Baudelaire
1 comment:
I love the most ornate chess set. It makes me want to make one lie it and what a fantasy it would be to play.
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