The Great Chinese Art Transfer

How So Much of China's Art Came to America

Michael St. Clair

This book tells the story of how and why millions of Chinese works of art got exported to collectors and institutions in the West, in particular to the United States. As China’s last dynasty was weakening and collapsing from 1860 into the early years of the twentieth century, China’s internal chaos allowed imperial and private Chinese collections to be scattered, looted and sold. A remarkable and varied group of Westerners entered the country, had their eyes opened to centuries of Chinese creativity and gathered up paintings, bronzes and ceramics, as well as sculptures, jades and bronzes.

The migration to America and Europe of China’s art is one of the greatest outflows of a culture’s artistic heritage in human history. A good deal of the art procured by collectors and dealers, some famous and others little known but all remarkable in individual ways, eventually wound up in American and European museums. Today some of the art still in private hands is returning to China via international auctions and aggressive purchases by Chinese millionaires.

University Press Copublishing Division / Fairleigh Dickinson University Press

Pages: 250 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½

978-1-61147-910-2 • Hardback • April 2016 • $102.00 • (£78.00)

978-1-61147-912-6 • Paperback • July 2017 • $55.99 • (£43.00)

978-1-61147-911-9 • eBook • April 2016 • $53.00 • (£41.00)

Subjects: Art / Asian, Art / History / Modern (late 19th Century to 1945), History / Asia / China

The Great Chinese Art Transfer

How So Much of China's Art Came to America

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

This book tells the story of how and why millions of Chinese works of art got exported to collectors and institutions in the West, in particular to the United States. As China’s last dynasty was weakening and collapsing from 1860 into the early years of the twentieth century, China’s internal chaos allowed imperial and private Chinese collections to be scattered, looted and sold. A remarkable and varied group of Westerners entered the country, had their eyes opened to centuries of Chinese creativity and gathered up paintings, bronzes and ceramics, as well as sculptures, jades and bronzes.

The migration to America and Europe of China’s art is one of the greatest outflows of a culture’s artistic heritage in human history. A good deal of the art procured by collectors and dealers, some famous and others little known but all remarkable in individual ways, eventually wound up in American and European museums. Today some of the art still in private hands is returning to China via international auctions and aggressive purchases by Chinese millionaires.

Details

University Press Copublishing Division / Fairleigh Dickinson University Press

Pages: 250 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½

978-1-61147-910-2 • Hardback • April 2016 • $102.00 • (£78.00)

978-1-61147-912-6 • Paperback • July 2017 • $55.99 • (£43.00)

978-1-61147-911-9 • eBook • April 2016 • $53.00 • (£41.00)

Subjects: Art / Asian, Art / History / Modern (late 19th Century to 1945), History / Asia / China

Author

Michael St. Clair is professor emeritus at Emmanuel College, Boston.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Illustrations
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter One: China: Alluring and Mysterious to the West
Chapter Two: China’s Tradition of Collecting
Chapter Three: The Greatest Collection Ever
Chapter Four: Foreigners in China’s Curios and Antiquities Shops
Chapter Five: American Pioneers in China: Yankee Traders, Missionaries and Diplomats
Chapter Six: Taste-Makers and Early Ceramics Collectors
Chapter Seven: International Dealers in Chinese Art
Chapter Eight: The Boston Orientalists and the Japanese Connection
Chapter Nine: Americans Who Began to Collect Chinese Porcelain
Chapter Ten: The Pace of American Collecting Increases
Chapter Eleven: The Age of Giants Who Collected
Chapter Twelve: The Great Public Collections of Chinese Art
Chapter Thirteen: Forgeries, Fakes, and the Repatriation of Art
Select Bibliography
Index

Reviews

Drawing primarily on secondary sources and collection catalogues, the book comprises an engaging overview of collections formed largely by Americans during this extraordinary period. It is an invaluable guide for anyone who wants to discover more about key individuals, identifying as it does the sheer number of people collecting Chinese material, and providing almost dictionary-like entries. . . .[It will] be relevant for students of Chinese studies, museum studies, history, art history, as well as curators, collectors and dealers – and, indeed, anyone interested more generally in Chinese art and collecting.
— China Quarterly

Enhanced with the inclusion of illustrations, and informative Foreword (Art Gives Pleasure), a four page Select Bibliography, and a twenty-nine page Index, "The Great Chinese Art Transfer: How So Much of China's Art Came to America" is extraordinarily and exceptionally well written, organized and presented from beginning to end. Of special note are the chapters on 'China's Tradition of Collecting' and 'Forgeries, Fakes, and the Repatriation of Art'... Very highly recommended as a core addition to community, college, and university library Art History collections.
— Midwest Book Review

The Great Chinese Art Transfer

How So Much of China's Art Came to America

Michael St. Clair

The Great Chinese Art Transfer

How So Much of China's Art Came to America

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