Summer Art Exhibitions

Don't miss any of these spectacular art exhibitions in the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California!

Source: San Francisco Botanical Garden Library

San Francisco Botanical Garden Library
"Dahlias! A Photographic Tribute to San Francisco's Official Flower"
Photography by Franck Avril May 4 – August 31, 2011

Asian Art Museum
Bali: Art, Ritual, Performance
February 25 – September 11

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso and the Parisian Avent-Garde
May 21 – September 6, 2011

De Young Museum
Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris
June 11, 2011 - October 9, 2011

San Francisco Maritime Museum
Mapping the Pacific Coast: Coronado to Lewis and Clark
Maritime National Historical Park
July 1 - October 31, 2011

Legion of Honor
Dutch and Flemish Masterworks from the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection
July 9, 2011 - October 2, 2011

California Historical Society
A Century of Landscapes: Selections from the California Art Club
July 14 – October 15

University of California , Berkley Art Museum
Rome, Naples, Venice: Italian Masterworks from the BAM/PFA Collection
July 6, 2011 - October 15, 2011

In Southern California:

Source: The Huntington Library and Art Collections

The J. Paul Getty Museum
Paris: Life and Luxury
April 26–August 7, 2011

Timken Museum of Art
George Inness in Italy
June 10, 2011 - September 18, 2011

The Huntington Library and Art Collections
Out of the Shadows: Joshua Reynolds’ Celebrity Portraiture and the Market for Mezzotints in 18th-Century Britain
July 2, 2011–Sept. 26, 2011

McKenney & Hall Portraits of Native Americans

Mo-Hon-Go An Osage Woman

No-Tim A Chippewa Chief

Petalesharoo A Pawnee Brave

Po-Ca-Hon-Tas

It is with the greatest pleasure that we introduce to you our latest catalog highlighting our extraordinary collection of portraits of Native Americans by McKenney and Hall. Thomas McKenney was Superintendent of Indian Affairs from 1816 until 1830, and one of a very few government officials to defend American Indian interests. When a large delegation of Indians came to see President Monroe in 1821, McKenney commissioned the portraitist Charles Bird King to paint the principal delegates, dressed in costumes of their choice. Many of the most prominent Indian leaders of the nineteenth century were among King’s sitters, including Sequoyah, Red Jacket, Major Ridge, Cornplanter, and Osceola.

McKenney later worked with James C. Hall, a Cincinnati judge and novelist, to compile copies of King’s portraits and produce History of Indian Tribes of North America in 1836. Most of King’s original portraits were subsequently destroyed in a fire at the Smithsonian in 1865, so their appearance in McKenney and Hall’s publication is the only record of the likenesses of many of the most prominent Indian leaders of the nineteenth century:

These hand-colored lithographs by McKenney and Hall remain as the most complete and colorful record of the native leaders who made the long journey to Washington to speak for their people. Please call Arader Galleries San Francisco location at 415.788.5115 to receive the catalog. There is also a great display of McKenney and Hall lithographs hanging at the San Francisco 432 Jackson Street location.

Celestial Charts by Johann Bayer

Though he was a lawyer and not an astronomer by profession, Johann Bayer created one of the most memorable seventeenth-century guides to the constellations, entitled Uranometria, in honor of Urania, the muse of astronomy. First published in Augsburg in 1603, the Uranometria included celestial maps that were not only highly appealing on a visual level, but also significant in the history of astronomy. They were the first charts to identify astral magnitude (brightness) with a lettering system, using Greek characters for the brighter stars and Roman letters for the fainter. Although the Italian cartographer Alessandro Piccolomini had earlier used a somewhat similar system, it was not until Augustin Royer used the Bayer letters in 1679, followed shortly by John Flamsteed, that the system gained currency among celestial chartmakers. Bayer’s atlas also added 12 new constellations, in the southern sky, to the 48 of Ptolemy.

Bayer’s stellar lettering system -- which we still use for stars visible to the naked eye -- and his presentation of the recently discovered constellations were significant contributions to celestial cartography. Ironically, it may be that his work on the atlas had an ulterior motive. Bayer, by profession a lawyer, was really an amateur astronomer. He dedicated his atlas to the city council and to two leading citizens of Augsburg, who rewarded him with an honorarium and, later, a seat on the council as legal adviser. In any event, these are important star charts of considerable charm from the early seventeenth century.

Stop by Arader Galleries San Francisco location to see our fine selection of these incredible star charts. For more information, visit our web site, or call us at 415.788.5115