Artist's Tuesday- November

Locally, the first Tuesday of the month is free at all the museums in San Francisco. This is not the first Tuesday, but to inaugurate our Artist's Study Day, we went today to the Palace of the Legion of Honour to see the exhibit on Houghton Hall, built by Horace Walpole in the 1720s and handed down through the family to the present Marquess of Cholmondeley. It is one of the few stately homes in Britain still in use as a private home.

The highlights of the exhibit include the Salon
                               

the Library

                                   

several paintings by Hogarth, among which
           

 and the gorgeous Chinese bed furnishings (hangings, coverlet and back drape) in the Cabinet

                                 

to which I stood nose to nose to examine the stitching, which was every bit as lovely as can be imagined. (Alas, no flash photography was permitted.)

There was a special surprise in seeing Burne-Jones' The Briar Wood live and up close.

I do break the rules and get close enough to the paintings to examine the technique, but I never ever touch objects in museums, no matter how much I might wish.

Withal, it was a very inspiring day!