Golden Gate Park De Young Museum 2

During a pleasant tour of De Young Museum in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, the wife and I spent a couple of hours gazing upon some incredible American art.

Two galleries in the museum are devoted to Art in America – from colonial art to the turn of the 20^th Century, and early 20^th-Century art through the decades of World War II.

Immediately upon exiting the elevator to the second floor to start our tour, we came upon the famous portrait of George Washington, circa 1854, by Rembrandt Peale, one of 70 or so that he created of the nation’s first president.

Adjacent to it is a representation of the Peale painting by Ray Beldner, who created his work out of U.S. Washington $1 bills.

"George Washington," c. 1854 by Rembrandt Peale

"E. Pluribus Unum" 2005 by Ray Beldner

The collection is extensive and all I can say is it’s a good thing digital cameras were invented, or I would have spent a fortune on film, development and prints after my De Young excursion.

Among the famous artists whose works are displayed are John Singleton Copley, Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins, William Harnett, Mary Cassatt, Frank Lloyd Wright, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Grant Wood.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Diptych: "The Niagara River at the Cataract"
"Horseshoe Falls from below the High Bank"
1832 by Gustav Grunewald

"Sacramento Indian" 1867 by Charles Christian Nahl

"After the Hunt" 1885 by William Michael Harnett

"Penelope" 1896 by Franklin Simmons

"Epiphany II: Adoration of the Shepherds" 1998 by Gottfried Helnwein