ASIAN ART
The newspaper for collectors, dealers, museums and galleries
june 2005
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THE LOUVRE’S BIG MOVE The Louvre has got a march on climate change. The museum is located by the Seine, in Paris, in a zone prone to flooding – and, since 2002, the Paris Prefecture, within the framework of the flood risk protection plan (PPRI), has warned the Louvre of the risks centennial flooding could pose to the museum’s collections. Around a quarter of a million works are currently stored in more than 60 different locations, both within the Louvre palace (mainly in flood-risk zones), and elsewhere in temporary storage spaces – all waiting to be moved to the new storage location. In 2016, this risk was emphasised when the Seine flooded its banks, and the rise in water levels was so severe that museum staff had to trigger the emergency plan: a 24hour operation to wrap, pack and take thousands of objects out of the risk areas and up to higher ground away from the potentially damaging flooding. Around 250,000 works were stored in more than 60 different locations, both within the Louvre palace, mainly in flood-risk zones, and elsewhere in temporary storage spaces until a permanent solution was found. So, the most ambitious move in
the history of the museum swung into action. The cost of the project is covered by the Louvre Endowment Fund, with the total price projected to be about Euro 60 million. The answer to the problem was The Louvre Conservation Centre, located in Liévin, near Lens, in northern France. Completed in 2019, the semi-submerged building stands next to the Louvre-Lens Museum, which itself was completed in 2012. The conservation centre makes it possible to store the reserve collections together in a single, functional, space and allows for optimal conservation conditions. It also improves access for the scientific community, researchers, and conservationists. The project gave the museum freedom not only to plan, but also to have the opportunity to modernise the conservation, study, and work conditions, as well as reconsider how the reserve collections are organised. The project runs parallel to the plan to create flood-proof storerooms for each department in the Louvre itself (for works in transit, loan replacement works, etc), as well as study galleries in the permanent collections. Additionally, this will give the public access by offering, via the Louvre-
The Musée du Louvre, in Paris, is in the middle of moving its reserve collections to northern France, away from the flood plain
Lens Museum, a special interpretation programme that allows visitors to visit the storage space and artwork treatment workshops. The new research and study facility, one of the biggest in Europe, will support and help broaden the scientific reach of France, regionally and locally. Currently, The Louvre houses 620,000 works of art, of which 35,000 are on display in the museum
at any one time. There are around 35,000 works housed in other institutions and about 3,000 are on loan for temporary exhibitions. The bulk of the works of art are part of the ongoing project and are currently in the process of being moved to the centre in Liévin. The new conservation building was completed in the summer of 2019 and work began in the second half of
NEWS IN BRIEF
Mallams 1788
Chinese, Japanese & Islamic Art 23rd & 24th June 2021 CHELTENHAM CONSIGNMENTS
A pair of Yongzheng (1723 – 1735) mark and period jardinières. Provenance – Acquired in Peking in the 1930s by the vendor’s grandfather whilst working as a junior diplomat. Estimate £20,000 – 30,000
INVITED
Enquiries – Robin Fisher 01242 235712 robin.fisher@mallams.co.uk www.mallams.co.uk
that year to transport the 250,000 objects in the reserve collections to the new space. Work on the project is still continuing – currently over 100,000 works of art having been moved, including paintings, carpets, tapestries, sculpture, objets d’art, furniture and other decorative objects. The transfer of all the works is hoped to be completed by early 2024.
Inside
WORLD RECORDS FOR INDIAN PAINTINGS AT AUCTION
The online auction on 13 March, at Saffronarts in Mumbai, achieved two world auction records for Indian artists. VS Gaitonde achieved INR 39.98 crore (US$ 5.5 million) for an untitled oil on canvas from 1961. In the early 1960s, Indian modernist V S Gaitonde was working out of a small studio at the Bhulabhai Desai Memorial Institute in then Bombay - a multi-faceted institution that encouraged the interaction of various visual and performing arts, and where the present lot was first acquired from the artist. It was at this time that the reclusive Gaitonde, known for his serene, ‘non-objective’ paintings, began experimenting with the layering of pigment and the manipulation of light and texture. Influenced by Zen philosophy and the principles of minimalism, Gaitonde’s works from this period pulsate with an innate lyricism as well as a sense of mystery. The second artist to achieve a world record was a 1991 work by NS Bendre, Untitled (Krishna on Kaliya) depicting a mythological story about an eponymous deity, which sold for INR 1.98 crore (US$ 175,000). S H Raza’s Jaipur (1976), an acrylic on canvas work, sold for INR 5.62 crores (US$ 780,000), and F N Souza’s Figure on Red and Green Background (1957) sold for INR 2.76 crores (US$ 384,000).
LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART REOPENS
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art reopens on 1 April after a year-long closure. The museum is allowed to reopen, as it has moved into the state’s red tier, which means all museums are allowed to reopen indoor spaces at 25% capacity with safety protocols in place. Out of the six new exhibitions on view, one is Asian: a retrospective of the Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara. Exhibitions that have been
2 Profile: the artist Vivien Zhang 5 Diversity in Edo-period kabuki prints 6 Abstraction and calligraphy, on show in Abu Dhabi 8 Epic Iran is the latest blockbuster exhibition due to open soon in London 10 Chinese Art from the Florence and Herbert Irving Collection, in New York 12 A history of the luxurious Chinese export wallpapers 14 The Way We Eat: looking at how East Asia has engaged with food over the centuries 16 From the Archive: Encompassing the Globe, Portugal and the World in the 16th and 17th Centuries 18 Burmese modern art, Bagyi Aung Soe, in Paris 20 Exhibitions in Japan, France, Monaco and the US 22 Auction previews in London and Hong Kong; gallery show, Hiroshi Sugimoto in Paris 23 Islamic Arts Diary
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12 Export Art
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CHINESE WALLPAPERS The market for Chinese goods started to become popular in Europe from the late 17th century, begun by the increased contact with China through trade with the Portuguese. Then the establishment and development of the East India Company (EIC) and other trading companies created huge demand for luxury goods made in Asia. Europe also sent diplomatic missions to forge links between East and West, which all helped to focus interest on China. Chinese wallpapers and prints seem to have been first imported into the UK in the late 17th century and were at their height of popularity in the mid to late 18th century, when the craze of Chinoiserie took over the West. Helen Gifford notes in her paper Chinese Wallpaper from Canton to Country, ‘Chinese pictures and prints were imported in small quantities first by the Portuguese in the 16th century, and then into France by Dutch traders, towards the end of the 17th century. The earliest precise reference to the import of graphic art from China to England is 1727’. The second wave of popularity in Britain was between 1826-1850, coinciding with the impact of the creation of Royal Pavilion situated on England’s south coast. Its creation, between 1787 and 1826, is said to have been inspired by the gift of some Chinese wallpaper to the Prince Regent (1762-1830). A status of a family and their wealth, which had often been bolstered by trade with the East, was an ability to own and display these ‘exotic’ luxury goods – and Chinese wallpaper became a very obvious way of displaying this status, along with textiles, porcelains, lacquerware and other objets d’art. By the mid-19th century, this demand had diminished, however, ASIAN ART | APRIL 2021 |
these papers were still being ordered, but in fewer numbers. Emile de Bruijn, in his book Chinese Wallpapers in Britain and Ireland notes, ‘It appears that pictorial Chinese wallpaper, combining the painting and wallpaper formats, only came into being because of the Western demand for Chinese pictures to be used as wall decoration. When exactly this crucial transition from pictures to wallpapers took place, and who was involved, may never be known. But from the currently available evidence, it seems that Chinese paintings and prints were available in Europe from the late 17th century onwards, whereas the earliest documented Chinese wallpapers – in the sense of purpose-made decorative paper wallcoverings supplied in elongated sheets – only arrived from China in about 1750’. These exotic wallpapers came from workshops in the port of Canton (modern-day Guangzhou), in Southern China. As the rise in demand for Chinese objects grew in Europe, the workshops, which were already producing smaller pictures for export and for tourists, adapted to the changing market and started to produce these large-scale paintings and panoramas for the export market. They typically depicted life in China, often illustrating the various trades, activities, costumes, boats, birds, insects and plants – all with the aim of satisfying foreign customers’ curiosity about China. The designs were predominantly painted by hand, though some earlier examples, dating to the middle of the 18th century, show printed outlines made by using small woodblocks, with the rest of the design in-painted by hand. Some wallpaper was also painted
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Created in the workshops of Canton, demand grew throughout the 18th century
Wall panel with garden urns, late 18th century, Chinese, for European market, silk taffeta, painted and printed, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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on silk rather than paper. Although not enough is known about the set-up and working procedures of the workshops that produced the wallpapers, the silk variations were probably hand-painted in the same Canton workshops since the technique used to create them seems very similar to the preparation of other handpainted silk goods. As Helen Gifford explains in her already cited paper, ‘Chinese wallpapers were manufactured in production-line workshops. Working to a copied design and with labour divided according to skill, a team of painters produced sets of wallpapers to decorate entire rooms’. By the mid-18th century, the Canton System (1757-1842) had been designed as a means for China to control trade with the West. Implemented through several imperial edicts, it was finally fully established when the Qianlong Emperor (17111799) responded to perceived threats from home and abroad and confined this maritime trade to Canton. It allowed for a concentration export workshops and shops to be established to service this export trade. From the late 17th century onwards, Chinese merchants, known as Hongs, had managed all the foreign trade in the port. Once the Canton System was implemented, the Hongs, or the 13 Canton Factories, were organised into the monopoly, or guild, called the Cohong. Supercargoes were the representatives and employees of the EIC, who were based in Canton and worked with the Cohong. It was these liaisons between supercargoes, other EIC employees, and merchants that were crucial to the success of the export trade. Certain Cantonese merchants were well-known to the EIC officials,
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ship captains, and supercargoes and soon discovered that there was a huge market for a variety of goods that they could privately commission and trade. Along with the ‘official trade commodities’, such as tea and silk they exported popular items such as porcelain, lacquerware, and furniture. Armorial porcelain was also a part of this trade, commissioned out of Canton, as well as all manner of other goods that were perceived as luxurious and exotic to decorate their homes. In the private trade, these orders were usually paid for in advance, and EIC employees collected their goods on their return trips. The annual arrival of the EIC ships in London, whose annual trade took advantage of the northeast monsoons, reached British shores between November and March. Supplies of these luxurious goods was limited, which created even desire for these exotic objects. Although imported by EIC cargo ships, the East Indiamen, Chinese wallpaper, like armorial porcelain, was part of the private trade that was also transported on EIC ships. The Company allowed this private trade to happen as it earned a good return on these goods privately commissioned in China, as it charged warehouse fees, cargo and handling fees, and commission from the public auctions they held in London. However, these limited trade conditions ensured that Chinese wallpapers were never available in large quantities, nor was there a consistent supply, and thus they remained a rare and distinctive luxury, which added to their appeal and elite status. These decorative goods were imported into Europe by all the foreign trading companies granted the rights to trade in China. As Emile de Bruijn
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6 1 Mid-19th century Chinese wallpaper depicting scenes in a tea garden. Private Collection 2 Detail of the Chinese wallpaper in Huis Arnold Vander Haeaghen, Ghent 3 Insects were also included in the general panoramas of flowers and trees. Private Collection 4 Flower and Bird paintings, details of wallpaper at Chateau Mainetenon, France. The chateau has two salons decorated in Chinoiserie style 5 Pheasants are popular subjects in Chinese wallpaper, Chateau Mainetenon, France 6 Wallpaper from Chinese Room at Oud Amelisweerd, Utrecht, late 18th century 7 Detail from the wallpaper in the Chinese room at Huis Arnold Vander Haeaghen, Ghent 8 In the later period, Chinese export wallpaper often portrayed scenes of Chinese life, this section shows the activity in ‘Spring in the Tea Garden’. Private Collection
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states, ‘Even though all imported goods officially had to be sold through the auctions of the EIC, there were various ways to ensure that particular goods would end up with those who had requested them. It is telling that most of the directors of the EIC were themselves participating in the private trade, too’. Although some export wallpapers could also be found in more modest homes, the great majority was destined for royalty and the large country houses of the aristocracy and wealthy merchants across Europe. In Britain, they were also found in the homes of families with connections to the EIC and other established trading companies. For these European buyers, the Chinese Rooms they created allowed the viewer to admire the scenes of Chinese life – its people, activities, and flora and fauna. The scenes also created a theatrical fantasy element – a way of experiencing how they imagined the far-away land of China in their own homes. One of the earliest known examples of Chinese wallpaper to reach Britain was destined for the home of the London banker Thomas Coutts (17351822). The panoramic wallpaper
Detail of the early 18th-century Chinese wallpaper presented to Thomas Coutts (1735-1822)
features a figural landscape wallpaper depicting various scenes of Chinese industry, which was given to Thomas Coutts around 1794. It was acquired through his customer, the first Earl Macartney, who led England’s first ambassadorial visit to China from (1792-94). Coutts originally had it hung it in his drawing room above the bank at 59 Strand, London, where visitors could admire his fashionable taste and – even more significantly – know of his excellent social and business connections that led to ownership of such a sought-after treasure. The wallpaper was later removed and placed in the new banking headquarters, and in the 21st century, now adorns the Coutts Board Room in The Strand, London. Today a replica of the wallpaper can also be seen in Coutts’ offices in Singapore. These wallpapers have always been exceptionally expensive and the specialist hanging that they required added further cost to their use. Helen Gifford notes that once the export trade had been firmly established, the workshops worked to a ‘formula’ to create the wallpaper that usually came in up to 40 lengths, each roll measuring 3.5m by 1m, sometimes with discernible numbers that indicated the sequence in which it should be hung. They often had to be modified when they reached their destination by expert hangers who cut, moved the scene to fit the rooms dimensions. They often functioned as a central decorative focus in individual ‘Chinese Rooms’ and were hung in a variety of creative ways, ranging from decorative panoramas to print room style installations. Most of the great houses of Europe had at least one room decorated with a Chinese paper – original, or an imitation produced domestically. Every set of papers was individually composed, but often followed formulated styles. They may have been made on speculation, or a specific theme may have been commissioned in the private trade. Some of the
Canton workshops also seemed to specialise in certain designs. Popular themes included occupations and crafts, and daily activities of Chinese life, which can be seen on a smaller scale in the earlier export paintings. Others represented an assortment of exotic plants and birds – some factual, some imaginary, but all elegantly balanced in the landscape that could create a story and cover the walls of an entire room. Ironically, the Chinese did not use wallpapers themselves and their products were made exclusively for export. With their exotic subject matter and their rich hand-painted colours and fine detail, they were unlike any of the domestically handproduced wallpapers available in Britain at that time. Quite a number of Chinese export wallpapers survive in a complete form in the country houses of across Europe, and some homes in the US. They are also found in museum collections around the world. The Chinese Wallpaper Study Group in the UK have noted that these existing papers can be put into three broad categories. These included birds, insects, flowering trees and plants in ornamental gardens; scenes of Chinese life and industry; and a combination of both these themes to create panoramas (birds and flowers seem to be the most prevalent type – and they remain the most popular in present day markets for Chinese wallpaper). Helen Gifford suggests papers decorated with flowering trees and plants, birds, insects and rocks representing idealised gardens were the most popular (and more affordable). Much more unusual were the papers decorated with figures in landscapes engaged in agriculture and industry, that depicted buildings and gardens and festivals. Another distinctive and identifiable group are the papers which incorporate figures at the bottom edge, with trees and bamboo, which appear from the 1790s onwards. The remaining percentage relate to Chinese pictures, used as prints, either separately or deployed in
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groups as collage, which are found in interiors up until 1800. Examples of this earlier use can be seen in the print room of Erddig in Wales, owned by the National Trust. Demand started to wane for these exotic scenes by the late 19th century, as new design trends, alongside more modern production methods, changed the taste in both domestic and public interiors. However, in the first half of the 20th century, renewed interest resurfaced when the craft of hand-painted and hand-blocked papers started to emerge and became fashionable again for interiors Inn the 1920-30s. This demand was especially popular among some groups in the US, when there was high demand for antique Chinese wallpapers. Homes such as the Kersey Coates Reed’s house, Lake Forest, in Illinois (built around 1929) and Highland Park built by Mr and Mrs Robert Mandell, also in Illinois, were both designed by the renowned Chicago architect David Adler and the interiors were created by Francis Elkins (1888-1953), his sister, who often, like other fashionable interior designers of the time, mixed English, French, and Chinese furnishings in her interiors. She was one of many interior designers using these wallpapers for their interiors on the East Coast, who bought historic Chinese wallpapers from Europe for their wealthy clients. The National Society of Colonial Dames’ headquarters in New York’s Upper East Side, built in 1928-30, has a room decorated the Queen Anne room, decorated with Chinese wallpaper acquired in Britain. The industrialist HF Dupont’s Winterthur House in Delaware, was also decorated using Chinese export wares and wallpapers. And the desire for these beautiful wallpapers continues. In the late 1980s, the firm de Gournay responded to demand when they started to create and reproduce hand-painted Oriental wallpapers for clients, which are still in high demand today.
SOME PLACES TO SEE WALLPAPER IN SITU
UK: A good number of National Trust properties have Chinese Rooms, as well as conserved wallpapers in the properties they look after. The Royal Pavilion, Brighton Austria: Schloss Hellbrun, Salzburg and Schloss Halbturn, Burgenland Belgium: Huis Arnold Vander Haeaghen, Ghent France: Chateau de Mainetenon, Eure-et-Loire and Chateau d’Ussé, Rigny-Ussé Germany, Schloss Nymphenburg, Munich and Schloss Dyck, Jüchen The Netherlands: Oud Amelisweerd, Utrecht; Huis ten Bosch, The Hague; and Heeswijk Castle, Heeswijk Dinther USA: The China Trade Room, the Sleeper-McCann House, Beauport, Massachusetts and Winterthur House, Delaware
MUSEUMS
The V&A Museum, London; The Louvre, Paris; Abegg Stiftung, Switzerland; and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts has in its collection the late 18th-century Drummond Chinese Wallpaper
BOOKS
Chinesische Tapeten für Europa: vom Rollbild zur Bildtapete by Friederike Wappenschmidt (1989) and Chinese Wallpaper in Britain and Ireland (2017) by Emile de Bruijn.
CONFERENCE
A conference on Chinese Wallpaper was held in the UK in 2016. For more information visit chinesewallpaper2016.wordpress.com
CLICK HERE For more information on the conference
ASIAN ART | APRIL 2021