Art Collecting as International Relations: Chinese Art and American Culture

Abstract

In the course of the nineteenth century, a few Americans recognized the maturity and quality of Chinese and Japanese art and individual Americans and museums began collecting it. The collecting of East Asian art affected American perceptions of China and Japan, Ameri can taste, American conceptions of art, and American culture. Admi ration for Asian art, specifically Japanese art, was of political signifi cance as well. And, across the Pacific, the American response to Asian art had consequences for Chinese and Japanese culture as well. In short, art collecting proved to be a significant form of intercultural relations, an important component of international history.