From Family Name

"Where do you get your name, and how do you pronounce it?" These are two of the most frequently asked questions at the de Saisset Museum. The answer is simple. The museum takes its name from the surname of Ernest de Saisset, a former student at Santa Clara College and an aspiring young painter. He came from a family of note, who emigrated from France and settled in San Jose, where they owned considerable property and maintained various business interests.

One of four children of Pedro and Maria de Saisset, Ernest wished to become a professional painter. Finding that quality art instruction was limited in San Jose in the 1880s, he left Santa Clara College to enroll at the Académie Julian in France. He returned to California in 1895 following several years of art study. Unfortunately, he was never able to fully realize his artistic dreams; he died in 1899 at the young age of 35.

In 1950, Ernest's youngest sibling Isabel de Saisset passed away. Upon her death, she left a bequest to Santa Clara University (renamed from Santa Clara College in 1912) that funded the founding and continued administration of a museum in her brother's name. In addition, she bequeathed one hundred of her brother's paintings as well as family heirlooms and artifacts.

In celebration of the de Saisset Museum's 60^th anniversary, De Saisset: From Family Name to Artistic Legacy explores the story of the organization as it grew from the surname of an ambitious young painter to an accredited university museum. Through a selection of photographs, correspondence, and archival records the exhibition traces key events from Ernest de Saisset's birth in 1864 to the founding of the museum in his honor in 1955.

_{Images, left to right: Ernest de Saisset, Self Portrait, late 19th century, oil on canvas, Gift of the Estate of Isabel de Saisset, 1.52. Ernest de Saisset, A Woman (Isabel de Saisset), n.d., oil on canvas, Gift of the Estate of Isabel de Saisset, 1.82.}