Media Notes
Oil
Description
Each room of the library is decorated with murals. Many of the paintings are in a trompe l'oeil style known as "grisaille," which means they are intended to look like sculpture. The god Apollo and the Nine Muses adorn the Vestibule, meant as a tribute to Clark's love of the humanities. Eleven paintings in the Drawing Room--along the handcarved oak ceiling, as well as on the panel on the north wall--are scenes from Doden's "All For Love," Clark's favorite play. The panel on the south wall depicts Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra," from which "All For Love" was adapted. The inset, mostly octagonal ceiling paintings in green, are of Ovid's "Metamorphosis."
The library was constructed between 1924 and 1926 by the son of Montana copper magnate and senator William A Clark as a memorial to his father. He bequeathed it to UCLA in 1934. Its book collection is primarily concerned with 17th and 18th century English culture, and fine printing of the l9th and 20th centuries.