To celebrate the 20th annual Sacramento Museum Day, I thought I would post this sketch of the Crocker Art Museum from last year. Using pencil and a notebook, I just stood outside for a little while after I had walked around the museum. The museum is really quite extensive. This section that I drew is just the original gallery section which used to be the main entrance before the new Teel Family Pavilion opened in 2010.
The Crocker Art Museum, located at the corner of 3rd and O Streets, is the longest continuously operating art museum in the West. The museum was originally conceived by Edwin B.Crocker (not his brother, Charles Crocker, known for being one of California's "Big Four", as I had originally thought) and his wife Margaret, back in 1869. Crocker had been appointed as California's Supreme Court Justice in 1863, and then served as legal counsel for the Central Pacific Railroad Company. He was forced to retire due to a paralyzing stroke in 1869, but he decided to use his money that he had made with the railroad to bring some culture to Sacramento. He commissioned the building of an art gallery next to his home. In order to fill it, and still being able to travel, the Crocker family went on a grand tour of Europe from 1869 through 1871 collecting many paintings and drawings, that became the core of their art collection. Once they returned home, Crocker commisioned many pieces of art as well as purchasing art from Californian artists. He died in 1875 at the age of 57, and in 1885, his wife gifted the E.B. Crocker Art Gallery and the collection to the City of Sacramento "in trust of the public". The original gallery building is an art piece itself, which was specifically designed for displaying their art collection. The 3-story building was designed by Seth Babson with a Victorian-Italian design inside and out and is now listed as a California historic landmark. The ballroom, just past the ornate staircase, is particularly spectacular. Margaret Crocker donated her home next door to the gallery in 1900 to the Penal Rescue Mission, but was later incorporated as part of the museum. In 2010, the Teel Family Pavilion was added just to the west of the original gallery creating an additional 125,000 square feet to the museum, tripling its size. This new building was designed by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates and has a sleek modern look to it that greatly contrasts with the other buildings, but "works together as a whole" according to the museum.
