Collectors 13


ASIA NEAR AND FAR


Dish decorated with ducks under lotuses, China, Jingdezhen, Qing dynasty, Daoguang period (1821-1850), porcelain decorated in famille rose enamels, fencai, diam. 18.7 cm, Paris, National Museum of Asian Arts – Guimet, © MNAAG, Paris, Dist. RMN- Grand Palais Photo: Richard Lamber


T


his exhibition explores the connoisseurs,


and dealers of Asian Art in


France from 1750 to 1939. Works in the exhibition come from a multitude of sources,


including


objects from the royal collections of Louis XV and Marie- Antoinette to the commercial and scientific collecting done in Asia from the 1850s to the 1930s. Tere is also a section of the craze for all things Japanese, that emerged in France, Japonism, in the late 19th century. Over 300 works, including lacquers, bronzes,


porcelains, screens, prints and


illustrated books, silk paintings, and theatre masks, explore the history and diversity of China, Japan, Korea and Cambodia. Also on show is the Coromandel lacquer screen formerly in the collection of the 18th-century Dijon parliamentarian Jehannin de Chamblanc (1722-1707). Tese objects, which first


noticeably started to arrive in France from the 18th century onwards, filled the collections of museums and the reserve collections. Retracing their history, often long neglected, is to revisit their journey. It is not just the story of the objects themselves, but also the history of


the scholars and


collectors, dealers, artists and art critics. art, colonial officials, travellers and scientists who interacted with them. Te first section of the exhibition deals with the merchants and antique dealers of the 18th and 19th centuries. In France, the haberdashery merchants’ trade brought an inventive transformation to goods brought in from China and Japan, to make them more attractive to the domestic market, for example, adopting porcelain and lacquerware to European taste, often by embellishing them with work done by the Parisian bronze workers and cabinetmakers. Te sales organised after the


death of the first collectors of Asian


art encouraged the


circulation of objects from the Ancien Régime, but it was not until the 19th century that the development of a truly specialised market developed during a period of intensification of trade with the Far East, after China and Japan became more open to the West. Te field of Chinese porcelain expertise emerged thanks to the major public sales at the Hôtel


collectors,


Drouot in Paris in the 1860s and 1870s. More broadly, this scholarly approach also fuelled the remarkable career of the merchant Florine Langweil (1861-1958), who helped fuel the growing number of publications and exhibitions on Japonism. Dealer,


collector and patron, ivories,


Florine Langweil was an important and yet often ignored figure in the Asian art world in Paris in the 19th century. Her shop was frequented by the most keen collectors, including Émile Guimet (1836-1918), a loyal customer, as well as Philippe Burty. She was heavily invested in promoting the arts of Japan and the dissemination of


an even


more unknown culture at the time – Chinese art. Langweil also facilitated exhibitions in Paris at the Museum of Decorative Arts and the Cernuschi Museum. During the major sales at the Hôtel Drouot, which had started to materialise, she also established herself as a recognised expert in this emerging field. A major donor to Parisian museums, Florine Langweil was


also a


generous patron of her native Alsace, where at the very beginning of the 20th century, she founded Asian art sections in museums in Colmar, Mulhouse, and Strasbourg. Art critic and inspector of Fine


Arts, Philippe Burty invented the word Japonism in 1872. Te term reflects the new craze for Japanese art which then brought together artists and collectors, and among them his friend the writer Edmond de Goncourt. Although he did not travel to Japan himself, Burty met many Japanese merchants, students and diplomats in Paris, particularly during the Universal Exhibition of 1878. Bringing together a collection of nearly 3,000 Japanese objects, which he drew and documented in his notebooks. His scholarly approach was coupled with a pronounced concern for the dissemination of knowledge, allowing his immense collection to be used for exhibitions and publications. Te collection was eventually dispersed during a sale in 1891 at the Hôtel Drouot. Section two explores the private


collectors of the 19th century. In France, Asian goods became better known and bought by more people from the mid-19th century onwards, this curiosity and


Fountain, China, Jingdezhen, Qing dynasty, Qianlong period (1736-1795) and Paris, around 1743, porcelain with cracked celedon glaze, gilded bronze mount, height 60.5 cm, Versailles, musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon © RMN-Grand Palais, Château de Versailles Photo: Daniel Arnaudet


demand was encouraged during the 1850s partly through greater exposure to the Far East in general though the series of Universal Exhibitions organised to promoted trade. Part of the Worlds Fairs, the Exposition Universelle was held in Paris in 1855 with combined total of over 5 million visitors. It was the first of 10 major expositions held in the city between 1855 and 1937. It was a reaction to demand, as exotic objects from the Far East had become accessible and affordable for the general public to collect and decorate their homes. ‘Asian Collections’ is the theme


of the third section, which introduces the idea of the West travelling to the East. Te Western view of the material cultures of Asia was transformed by the accessibility of these distant countries. Both diplomatic and commercial missions encouraged the influx of objects brought back from Asian in the mid-19th century.


Following – it the First


Opium War (1839-1842), France’s so-called ‘China’ mission was emblematic of the thinking of the time


combined market


prospecting with the signing of one of the unequal treaties between France and China’s crumbling dynastic rule. Tis also gave rise to ideal opportunities for private individuals to buy antiques and other objects on the ground in Asia during their short visit and to


SEARCH


the database for Asian


collections in France


One-door cabinet depicting a set of characters in landscape, China, Qing dynasty, late Qianlong period (1736-1795), wood, carved red lacquer, black lacquer, gilded copper alloy 28 x 38.6 x 19.2 cm, Dijon, Museum of Fine Arts © Museum of Fine Arts of Dijon Photo: François Jay


The Courtesan Shinateru of the Okamoto House by Chokosai Eisho (active between 1790 and 1799), from the Pleasure District Beauties Competition, Edo period, circa 1795-1797, woodblock print, ink and colours on paper, 37.5 x 24 cm (oban yoko format), Strasbourg, department of Prints and Drawings © Strasbourg City Museums Photo: M Bertola


take them back to France. Tis can be seen in the experience of the industrialist Charles Varat (1843-1893), whose expedition to Korea to 1888 organised by the ministry of arts and public affairs, was published in the magazine Le Tour du Monde. Varat


travelled


from Seoul to the port city of Busan, exploring and collecting all aspects of Korean culture, from everyday objects to religious life. In 1889, these objects and works of art were exhibited at the Trocadéro then, from 1893, at the Guimet Museum, offering the public the opportunity to discover of a then little-known kingdom which, by force, had just ‘opened up’ to the world under pressure from Western and Japanese powers. Te last section looks at how


objects were seen and collected in Asia. At the turn of the 20th century, the first scientific and scholarly field studies were established. Tese trips differed from the earlier missions and allowed for a prolonged stay in Asia to further broaden the fields


of interest, whether it artistic, archaeological. ethnographic or administrative such as the colonial administrators in


French


Indochina. Tis type of experience can be seen in the work of the bibliophile Emmanuel Tronquois in Japan, the colonial administrator Adhémard Leclère in Cambodia, and in the scientific investigations of Édouard Chavannes in China and, later, in the work of André Leroi- Gourhan again in Japan. Tese personal collections come from a different viewpoint on collecting, and can be seen to be distanced from the luxury and exoticism of earlier collections, however, they still keep the sense of curiosity, delight, and fascination with Asia, which was first ignited in the 18th century. Tese collections are on a more scientific and academic level, providing a wealth of data and research for future generations.


• Until 22 January, 2024, Dijon Museum of Fine Arts,


musees.dijon.fr ASIAN ART | WINTER 2023


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