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The reception of Chinese painting in Britain, circa 1880-1920 : with special reference to Laurence Binyon

Date
24/06/2010
Author
Huang, Michelle Ying-Ling
Supervisor
Spencer, Robin
Funder
Burnwynd History and Art Limited
Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Charitable Trust
Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland
University of St Andrews
Keywords
Laurence Binyon
British Museum
Chinese painting
The Admonitions scroll
Qiyun shengdong
British modernist
Chinese aesthetics
Collection
Exhibition
Metadata
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Abstract
The British understanding of Chinese painting owed much to Laurence Binyon (1869-1943) who enriched the British Museum’s collections of Oriental painting, and for almost forty years, published widely and delivered lectures in Britain and abroad. Binyon’s legacy is to be found in several archival resources scattered in Britain, America, Japan and China. This dissertation is a study of the reception of Chinese painting in early twentieth century Britain, and examines Binyon’s contribution to its appreciation and criticism in the West. By examining the William Anderson collection of Japanese and Chinese paintings (1881), I illuminate Anderson’s way of seeing Chinese pictorial art and his influence on Binyon’s early study of Oriental painting. I argue that the early scroll, The Admonitions of the Court Instructress, which Binyon encountered in 1903, ignited his interest in the study of traditional Chinese painting, yet his conception of Chinese pictorial art was influenced by Japanese and Western expertise. To reveal the British taste and growing interest in Chinese painting around 1910, Binyon’s involvements in major acquisitions and exhibitions of Chinese paintings at the British Museum, including the Sir Aurel Stein collection (1909) and the Frau Olga-Julia Wegener collection (1910), as well as his visits to Western collections of Chinese art in America and Germany, will be investigated. In order to understand the relevance and values of Chinese painting for the development of early twentieth-century British art, I also scrutinize how the principle of “rhythmic vitality” or qiyun shengdong, as well as the Daoist-and Zen-inspired aesthetic ideas were assiduously promoted in Binyon’s writings on Chinese painting, and how Chinese art and thought kindled British modernists to fuse art with life in order to re-vitalize the spirit of modern European art with non-scientific conceptions.
Type
Thesis, PhD Doctor of Philosophy
Rights
Embargo Date: 2024-05-31
Embargo Reason: Thesis restricted in accordance with University regulations. Electronic copy of text restricted until 31st May 2024
Description
Electronic version excludes material for which permission has not been granted by the rights holder
Collections
  • Art History Theses
Description of related resources
Archive of Laurence Binyon (Loan 103), British Library, London
Inventories of Chinese Painting, Minutes and Original Papers in the British Museum, London
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/1020

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