Christmas at the Haggin Museum

It’s Christmas time at the Haggin Museum, and the galleries are dressed for the season: red, green, gold and white woven through banisters like festive ribbons. I haven’t been to the Haggin in quite some time. As my vision deteriorated from Fuchs Dystrophy, I stopped visiting museums altogether. One of the first things I longed to do after my cornea transplants was to return to art museums and see paintings in person again – not photos of paintings enlarged on a computer screen, but real canvases, real brushstrokes; I wanted to stand in the presence of real paintings and see them in their physical form.

Now that I’ve had transplant surgery in both eyes, my vision is better - not fully recovered, but definitely much better than it was. So, for my birthday, my dad drove me down to Stockton and we spent an afternoon wandering though the Haggin.

For those who don’t know, the Haggin Museum might be one of the best-kept secrets of the art world. Some even argue that the Haggin is the finest art museum in Northern California – surpassing the San Francisco Bay Area museums in the strength of its collections. A bold claim, I know. The Haggin is a mere fraction of the size of the De Young or the Palace of the Legion of Honor. But what it lacks in square footage, it makes up for with astonishing depth: Renior, Gauguin, Rodin, Jean-Léon Gérôme, William Merrit Chase, Thomas Moran, and the region’s largest collection of Albert Beirstadt landscapes.

On my first trip to the Haggin, I was stunned to find myself standing in front of Bouguereau’s Nymphaeum - a painting I have pored over in books, never imagining that I would see it in person. The last time I stood in front of this painting, my vision was weakening - but not yet to the point where I could no longer appreciate the subtle variations of color, the brushwork, the details... Fuchs Dystrophy impairs vision, and not just the ability to see detail - value contrasts are diminished (e.g.: darks appear grayed out rather than fully dark), colors appear washed out. Cornea transplants have restored my ability to see strong contrasts and vibrant color. Edges are still fuzzy, but at this point, I will happily take whatever victories I can get.  

The Haggin also houses the largest public collection of works by Golden Age illustrator J.C. Leyendecker, one of my artistic heroes since my student days at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. Honestly, this exhibit alone would have been well worth the trip.

A gallery dedicated to the works of J.C. Leyendecker

My father viewing illustrations of Leyendecker

 

A section of drawers holds drawings not only by Leyendecker but also by other famous illustrators such as Charles Dana Gibson. To protect the drawings, each drawer is covered with glass. Here my father examines a drawing displayed inside a drawer.

In addition to its art collections, the Haggin also features artifacts from early California history. From Gold Rush exhibits to Native American baskets, to fully recreated Victorian era rooms, to19th century industrial technology... I could spend days wandering through these halls. I was particularly fascinated with these antique fire-fighting machines (these would have been very helpful as reference when I was designing steampunk elements for my last video game job). 

So much more could be said about the Haggin, but I won't try to describe it - you have to see it for yourself. I can't recommend this place highly enough. The Haggin would be a great place to visit any time of year, but so near Christmas time, with all the festive ornaments - and to see it after my recovery from from cornea transplant surgeries - to me, this trip was priceless.