Sculpture Garden Near Me in Lincoln Park: The Legion of Honor's Rodins

The best sculpture garden near me in San Francisco's northwest corner is not a garden in the formal sense. It is the open-air stretch of bronze and steel around the Legion of Honor at 100 34th Avenue, at Clement Street, in Lincoln Park. Rodin's The Thinker sits in the middle of the Court of Honor, two equestrian statues by Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington guard the front terrace, and a bright red steel piece by Mark di Suvero rises out of the parking lot. You can see all of it without buying a ticket.

The museum was the gift of Alma de Bretteville Spreckels, wife of the sugar magnate Adolph B. Spreckels. It was dedicated to California soldiers killed in the First World War and opened on Armistice Day, November 11, 1924. The building is a full-scale replica of the French Pavilion that architects George Applegarth and Henri Guillaume put up for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, and that pavilion was itself a three-quarter-scale copy of the Palais de la Légion d'Honneur in Paris.

The hilltop has a darker past. The land was once the city-owned Golden Gate Cemetery, opened in 1870 and closed in 1909, before the park took its place. Between March 1992 and November 1995 the Legion underwent a major renovation, and the galleries reopened with the same Beaux-Arts face toward the Golden Gate.

Walk through the arched gateway and the colonnaded Court of Honor opens up, with The Thinker sitting at its center beneath that glass pyramid, which lights the galleries below. The bronze stands 6 feet 6 inches tall. Rodin modeled the figure around 1880, and this example was cast around 1904 by the Paris foundry Alexis Rudier, whose stamp is on the base along with Rodin's signature.

The museum is careful about its claims. The first large bronze of The Thinker went to the University of Louisville, cast in 1904 by A. A. Hébrard, and the Legion's version is one of several cast during Rodin's lifetime rather than the original. It was one of the earliest purchases among the more than seventy Rodin sculptures that Alma Spreckels bought and later gave to the Legion, and it has sat in the Court of Honor since the 1924 opening. The museum has itself listed the court among its free spaces, so you can stand with the statue before deciding whether to go inside.

Before you even reach the gate, two bronze riders flank the front terrace. Both are by Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington, and the museum describes them as central elements of the building's architecture and site. Joan of Arc sits on a granite base outside the main entrance. The museum dates its design to 1915, and the sculptor and her husband Archer Huntington donated it in 1926. In 2019 the statue underwent a major conservation treatment.

Across from Joan is El Cid Campeador, which the museum dates to 1921. It came to the Legion in 1937 as a gift of Herbert Fleishhacker and stands on a poured concrete base. The two horsemen frame the approach, so stand between them for a photo with the colonnade of the court behind.

The surprise on the plaza is Pax Jerusalemme, a bright-red steel sculpture from 1998 and 1999 by Mark di Suvero, set in the parking lot across from the entrance. It was installed in 2000 and stirred controversy at the time, since its angled beams look nothing like the Beaux-Arts building. Two decades on it works as a counterweight to the classical stone and as a landmark for anyone meeting friends in the lot.

Off the northwest corner of the grounds, overlooking the Golden Gate, is George Segal's Holocaust Memorial, a sculptural group of white-painted bronze dedicated in Lincoln Park in November 1984. It is not part of the museum's collection and has no hours or ticket, but it is a short walk from the plaza and deserves a quiet stop of its own.

The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday from 9:30 am to 5:15 pm and closed on Mondays, and its holiday list includes Thanksgiving and Christmas. Adult tickets cost $20, seniors 65 and over pay $17, students with ID pay $11, and visitors 17 and under go free. The last ticket is sold an hour before closing, and tickets are also sold at the admissions desk on a first-come, first-served basis.

The trick for a budget visit is the 4:30 pm rule: at that time each day the permanent collection opens free to everyone, no ticket needed, though special exhibitions still charge. Arrive around 4 pm, walk the terrace and the court while the light is low, then head in for the last 45 minutes. Muni riders also save $3 on adult admission by showing a valid FastPass or transfer at the desk.

The café and museum store do not need a ticket. Ask the front desk for a café sticker and head downstairs to a small terrace where another Rodin bronze, Claude Lorrain, cast in 1992 from a model of 1889, keeps diners company. Inside, docents lead free Gallery Conversations at 1 pm Tuesday to Sunday, and through 2027 the galleries hold two shows, Miró: Proof Against All until July 25 and Eternal Paris: Photographing the City of Light until April 4.

The Legion overlook is one of the stops on the Lands End trail, and the National Park Service suggests scanning the city from the overlook and returning along the El Camino Del Mar Trail. The Lands End Lookout visitor center at 680 Point Lobos Avenue is open daily from 9 am to 5 pm and can be reached at (415) 426-5240.

Closer to the museum, the Lincoln Park Golf Course at 300 34th Avenue is the oldest city-owned course in San Francisco, a full 18 holes since 1918, and its 17th tee frames the Golden Gate Bridge. On the other side, the tiled Lincoln Park Steps rise from the end of California Street at 32nd Avenue; the mosaic was added in 2015 and makes a colorful start or finish to the walk up.

Address: Legion of Honor, Lincoln Park, 100 34th Avenue at Clement Street, San Francisco, CA 94121. Hours are Tuesday to Sunday, 9:30 am to 5:15 pm. Outdoor sculpture is free, and museum tickets are $20 for adults. Parking is free in the lots in front of the museum and along its north side; take valuables with you, because the museum warns about car break-ins. The 18 bus climbs Legion of Honor Drive and stops right at the entrance, while the 1 and 38 leave you about half a mile away at 33rd Avenue and Clement Street. There is bike parking near the museum.