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Conrad Buff, <em>California Orange Grove</em>, Oil on board, 21 x 34 in. UCI Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art, Gift of The Irvine Museum
Conrad Buff, California Orange Grove, Oil on board, 21 x 34 in. UCI Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art, Gift of The Irvine Museum

Gift of The Irvine Museum

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The Irvine Museum was established in 1992 by Athalie Richardson Irvine Clarke, Joan Irvine Smith, and James Irvine Swinden to promote appreciation for California’s art. Smith and Swinden are descendants of James Irvine who founded Irvine Ranch, the sprawling agricultural property that evolved into the city named for the family. Clarke was married to James Harvey Irvine, Jr.

Swinden and UCI signed a gift agreement in October 2016, transferring a selection of works from The Irvine Museum Collection amassed by his mother, Joan Irvine Smith (1933 – 2019). In accepting the gift, the university agreed to move forward on plans to build an art museum on campus, which is consistent with UCI’s original master plan by architect William Pereira to situate an art museum at the center of the academic experience.

The collection depicts the State’s distinctive natural environments and features, revealing facets of California's late 19th through early 20th century history, society, and culture. The collection includes drawings, sketches, objects, and paintings from 1890 – 1930 by seminal artists such as Franz Bischoff, Jessie Arms Botke, Alson Skinner Clark, Elanor Colburn, Frank Cuprien, Armin Hansen, Anna Althea Hills, Arthur Mathews, Granville Redmond, William Ritschel, Guy Rose, Donna Schuster, William Wendt, and many others. As evidenced in the work, artists in the collection were inspired by the Golden State’s distinctive light, tones, and palettes and contributed to the nation’s early conception of California, its social contexts, and the West.

A lifelong naturalist and environmental preservationist, Smith assembled a collection that captured California’s undeveloped landscape, rugged seascapes, and her childhood memories of life on the Irvine Ranch. In addition to their significance as artworks, she saw them as historical records and reflective of artists’ reverence for nature—a passion she shared.

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UC Irvine Jack and Shanaz Langson
Institute and Museum of California Art
University of California, Irvine
Irvine, CA 92697-1010

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18881 Von Karman Avenue
Suite 100
Irvine, CA 92612

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Tuesday – Saturday | 10 am – 4 pm
Sunday & Monday | Closed

949-824-1449
imca@uci.edu

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Langson IMCA’s ongoing collections research continues to provide new information, which will result in updates, revisions, and enhancements to object records. At the time of publication image credits are reviewed by Langson IMCA’s curatorial staff and reflect the most current information the museum has in its database but may be incomplete.