The Pied Piper at the Palace Hotel, San Francisco
This is the restaurant
We went specifically to see the "The Pied Piper" by Maxfield Parrish. This work is 5'X16' and has its own eponymously named bar, located down a hall to the right of the lobby. The bar is very elegant and we had a round of excellent drinks. The painting is impressive! Parrish developed his own glazing techniques to make the colors deep and vibrant. There is a blue named for him, "Parrish blue". He was one of the most popular American painters, although he isn't considered to be a great artist, by modern standards. His subject matter tended toward idealized natural settings with nudes lit by dramatic sunsets or sunrises. He remains influential in popular culture.
"The Pied Piper" is joyful, despite it depicting a very grim scene from folklore and likely history. Check out the Wikipedia page on the town of Hamelin in Germany for the historical evidence. The legend is that the town of Hamelin was beset by an invasion of rats. A stranger arrives and boasts that he can rid the town of rats by playing his magic pipe. The piper asks for gold as payment for his services. The Hamelin elders agree. The piper plays and the rats scamper behind him as a leads them out of town. With the rats gone, the town elders decide to cheat the piper out of his payment. In a rage, the piper plays again. This time, the children of the village gather, enchanted and follow him out of town and into the hills. The desperate parents can do nothing to stop their children and eventually lose track of them. Neither the children nor the piper are ever seen again!
This impressive work was commissioned by the hotel, itself for the bar. It is well worth a visit for drinks.
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