"The de Saisset Museum at Santa Clara University is the South Bay Area’s free Museum of art and history. The 19,210 square foot facility was founded adjacent to the Mission Santa Clara de Asís on the Santa Clara University campus in 1955 and is currently one of only two Museums in the South Bay accredited by the American Association of Museums. Operated by Santa Clara University, the de Saisset Museum is member-supported and privately funded.
The de Saisset Museum collects, preserves, exhibits, and interprets objects of art and history for the educational and cultural enrichment of all people. The Museum achieves its mission through an active program of exhibitions, collections, education programs and publications. As an important resource for Santa Clara University, the de Saisset actively collaborates with the larger University community, in order to foster the integration of diverse forms of learning and the Jesuit ideals of reasoned and rigorous inquiry.
The de Saisset Museum was founded through a bequest from Isabel de Saisset, in memory of her deceased brother Ernest. Isabel and Ernest were born to a successful French immigrant who became the French Counsel to the city of San Jose. Ernest de Saisset was a former student at Santa Clara University and an accomplished painter who studied at the Academie Julien in Paris. The de Saisset Museum serves as a repository for Ernest de Saisset’s paintings, as well as his family’s decorative arts collection.
Since its founding, the de Saisset Museum’s collections have expanded to include thousands of objects. Highlights of the de Saisset’s permanent collection include Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, and 19th century prints by artists such as Albrecht Durer, William Hogarth, and Giovanni Battista Piranesi. Modernist prints in the de Saisset Collection include works by Marc Chagall, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso. The Museum also has an extensive collection of contemporary prints, with a special emphasis on artists from the San Francisco Bay Area, such as Robert Arneson, Robert Bechtle, David Best, Christopher Brown, Joan Brown, Richard Diebenkorn, David Gilhooly, Frank Lobdell, Manuel Neri, Nathan Oliveira, Wayne Thiebaud, and William Wiley. The de Saisset Museum also has a strong photography collection, with hundreds of prints by artists such as Ansel Adams, Ruth Bernhard, Edward Curtis, Imogen Cunningham, Judy Dater, and Weegee.
The de Saisset Museum also serves as the caretaker of the University’s California History Collection. This important collection, which is on permanent view, includes Native American art and artifacts from the pre-European contact period, such as baskets, jewelry, ornaments, and hand tools. Other highlights of the California History collection include the distinctive Mission Collection, which ranges from Spanish Colonial devotional art—such as religious paintings and santos dating from the 18th century—to 19th century gothic style decorative arts. Through historical objects and artifacts, the California History Collection tells the history of the area from the pre-contact period to the founding of the Mission, through the Gold Rush and early years of the College. This collection forms the basis of the Museum’s educational programming—an active program of free docent tours that cover the Mission and the California History collection. Every year, thousands of children from the Santa Clara Valley and beyond are introduced to their region’s history through this tour program."
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