It all began with a spark of inspiration in 1915... a chance encounter that would shape one of San Francisco’s most iconic landmarks. After visiting the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, our remarkable founder, Alma de Bretteville Spreckels fell in love with the French Pavilion, a replica of the Palais de la Légion d’Honneur in Paris. She requested permission from the French government to replicate the historic palace once again for a new art museum that they would eventually give to our city, San Francisco. When it came to the building’s design, there was only one man for the job: George Adrian Applegarth, an architect from Oakland who served as a sort of personal architect to the Spreckelses. He adapted the plans for the French Pavilion designed by Henri Guillaume and created a new version of the building that included 19 galleries, a tearoom, and a theater. To learn more about the history of our beautiful museum, come visit our exhibition "Celebrating 100 Years at the Legion of Honor." https://bit.ly/4dqSVTi [Knips 10B Sedan in front of the Legion of Honor under construction, ca. 1923. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Archives] #Legion100 #LegionOfHonor #SanFranciscoHistory (fb)

Striking a pose with history 🎨 📐 Our wonderful staff member is channeling their inner muse —quite literally— by replicating the poised stillness of "Allegory of Geometry" by French Baroque painter Laurent de La Hyre. In this neoclassical portrait, geometry is personified as a calm, classically dressed woman holding a compass and right angle in one hand, and a sheet of Euclidean proofs in the other. Around her are reminders of geometry’s real-world reach: an Egyptian pyramid, a globe symbolizing cartography, and a landscape painting referencing perspective in art. The work belongs to a series of seven paintings depicting the liberal arts that formed the backbone of classical education: arithmetic, astronomy, dialectic, grammar, music, rhetoric, and (of course) geometry! We love seeing moments like this where people connect with art not just through observation, but through imagination and embodiment. What's your best art imitation moment? 🕺 [Laurent de La Hyre, "Allegory of Geometry," 1649] #LaurentDeLaHyre #BaroqueArt #ArtHistory #MuseumMoments #GeometryInArt #LegionOfHonor (fb)