Haggin Museum

The Haggin Museum’s art collection features fascinating works of art from late 19th and early 20th-century masters to “Golden Age” illustrator J.C. Leyendecker, while our history collection offers visitors a glimpse into the past—from the Central Valley and beyond.

Breathtaking panoramas of Yosemite Valley, including one that was once on loan to the White House, are among twelve paintings in the museum’s art collection by American artist Albert Bierstadt. Other large landscape paintings by artists such as George Inness, William Keith, Thomas Moran, and Julian Rix enhance the museum’s collection of 19th century American Art.

Also on display in the museum’s fine art galleries are paintings by late 19th to early 20th-century European artists. Highlights include works by the great animal painter Rosa Bonheur, the Neoclassical artist William Bouguereau, the popular French Impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and many more.

The museum’s extensive history galleries offer families a chance to travel back in time to learn more about Stockton and California history. Exhibits focus on area Native Americans, the Gold Rush, agriculture in the San Joaquin Valley, historic firefighting equipment, as well as shipbuilding and other Stockton industries. Visitors will see Victorian-era rooms from a San Joaquin Valley ranch home, a recreated local flour mill, and a turn-of-the-last-century California town that includes a one-room schoolhouse and a Chinese herb shop. Beautiful American Indian baskets, a Holt Caterpillar tractor, the infamous trunk of Emma LeDoux, and a World War II jeep are among the thousands of historical treasures permanently on display.

Exhibits

YOSEMITE PEOPLE on view through October 16, 2022 | At Yosemite National Park, more than five million annual visitors are supported by thousands of local rangers, workers, and volunteers. Through Yosemite People, the complex and nuanced relationships between people and Yosemite’s natural wonders come to life. Photographs from award-winning artist Jonas Kulikauskas – who brings his street photography sensibilities to the wilderness – reveal crowds clamoring to take the perfect selfie with Half Dome in the background and families cooling off in Tenaya Creek, while servers prep for diners at the Ahwahnee Hotel and rangers patrol the expansive Park. Traditions and history, too, are preserved through these images; Kulikauskas captures master basket weaver Julia Parker before her retirement, as well as Yosemite Valley Stables (where horseback riding tours are no longer allowed). Augmenting these images are text panels with oral histories from visitors to and workers in Yosemite, as well as historic images from Eadweard Muybridge, Ansel Adams, and Carleton Watkins.

Jonas Kulikauskas is an award-winning artist, photographer, and author, who has exhibited nationally and internationally, including a solo museum show at the National Čiurlionis Gallery of Art, Lithuania, in 2012. Since 2002, Kulikauskas has been a faculty member at ArtCenter College of Design, where he received the Samsung Faculty Enrichment Grant for Yosemite People.

SCI-FI TO SUPERHEROES: THE ART OF SIDESHOW COLLECTIBLES on view through January 29, 2023 | Artists have long created works featuring characters or scenes from popular stories. From the depiction of mythological fantasies in William-Adolphe Bouguereau’s Nymphaeum (on view in the Haggin’s McKee Gallery) to Salvador Dali’s dreamlike illustrations of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland or Keith Haring’s modern spin on Walt Disney’s Cruella De Vil, the tradition remains common practice in the art world. The artworks celebrate heroes, tell the tales of glory and heartache, or even express admiration one has for a beloved character. Carrying on the tradition, the artists of Sideshow Collectibles bring to life pop culture icons such as Batman, Iron Man, and Luke Skywalker, through fine art prints, three-dimensional figures, and more.

Sideshow Collectibles works with an international group of artists to produce high-quality licensed collectible art. Each fine art print or figure connects fans with their favorite characters from film, television, comic books, and pop culture. Stockton native Mat Falls and Greg Anzalone founded Sideshow in 1994. Mat Falls was a principle sculptor for the company creating highly detailed and sculpturally elegant figures. “These are collectibles—they’re limited edition—that elevates them to a particular place, that in my opinion, makes them fine art and has become a celebration of pop culture, icons, superheroes, fantasy, and creatures,” commented Mat.

Sci-Fi to Superheroes: The Art of Sideshow Collectibles is a celebration of pop culture and the artists that bring it to life. On view are a selection of limited-edition fine art prints and three-dimensional figures featuring characters from iconic brands such as DC, Marvel, and Star Wars created by Sideshow sculptors and artists.

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