Crocker Art Museum
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The Crocker Art Museum has operated continuously longer than any other art museum west of the Mississippi. Founded in 1885, it boasts an excellent collection of early California art including important works of Albert Bierstadt, Xavier Martinez, William Keith and Thomas Hill; in addition there is an old master drawings collection containing pieces of Rembrandt, Durer and Francois Boucher. The core collection gifted by Judge E.B. Crocker has grown to a count of over 14,000 pieces. The Crocker Museum is the leading art museum of the capitol district and California Central Valley.
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[edit] Early California Collection
The California Collection includes scenes of early settlement, Gold Rush era, and turn of the century [Tonalism]. These works capture a broad range of the early California experience including landscape and genre paintings. Examples from the core collection assembled by Judge Crocker are Thomas Hill's Great Canyon of the Sierra (1871), Charles Christian Nahl's Sunday Morning in the Mines, [[William Hahn's Market Scene (1872) and The Larder (1879) by Samuel Marsden Brooks. Late 19th and early 20th century Impressionism and Tonalism art has been added, including such works as Edward Deakin's Mont Blanc (1880) and William Keith's After Morning Rain ca. 1890s.
[edit] Old Master Drawings
Many major European schools are represented in this collection of approximately 1400 images. There are noteworthy Italian masterpieces, especially from the 16th and 17th centuries. The Central European and Swiss Schools are srongly represented, particularly from the 19th century. Present are a number of rare works of the French school. Some specific drawings held are: [[Albrecht Durer]'s Woman with a Banner, Jacques Callot's Study for the Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian and Rembrandt's Liberation of Saint Peter
[edit] Asian Art Collection
Over 600 miniature Indian and Persian artworks donated by Edith and William Cleary form the backbone of this expanding collection.
[edit] Bibliography of works about the Crocker Art Museum
- Janice T. Driesbach, Catherine Church Holland and Harvey Jones, Art of the Gold Rush. University of California Press (1998)
- Susan Landauer, California Impressionists, Georgia Museum of Art (1996)
