Chinese Civil Strife and the International Art Market

Throughout the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century, as civil strife in China became widespread, many Chinese collectors began to sell works that then became available to markets outside of China. Significant American collections of Chinese art were built during this period. After the end of World War II, due to further upheavals in China, works from Chinese collectors and dealers again entered the market. With the communist takeover of China in 1949, however, trade with the West slowed, and during the Korean War (1950–1953), the American government blocked the importation of goods of Chinese origin, including art. For collectors outside of China, this meant that available objects were primarily coming from collections that had been formed in other countries prior to 1949.

For their collection of Chinese art, John D. Rockefeller 3rd and Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller put most of their efforts into finding great pieces of Chinese ceramics. Thanks to their own exposure to the ceramic wares of China during their travels in Asia and to the advice of Sherman E. Lee, they were able to acquire pieces from China’s most illustrious periods of production, including the Song, Ming, and Qing periods. In contrast to many earlier American and European collections of Chinese ceramics, which included the dazzlingly colored Qing dynasty monochromes and the Kangxi period overglaze enamel export wares, the Rockefellers chose pieces that were suggestive of the influence of traditional Chinese and Japanese connoisseurship and taste. The Chinese ceramic works in the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection comprise works of exceedingly fine craftsmanship and reserved, elegant decoration and form.

Kuncan (Chinese, 1612–ca. 1686)
Temple on a Mountain Ledge
China
Qing period (1644–1911), dated 1661
Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
Asia Society, New York: Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection, 1979.124

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The pulsating energy and naturalistic forms seen in this painting by Kuncan are characteristic of the artist’s work. The two groups of buildings in the foreground and middle ground most likely represent some of the complexes at the Bao’en Buddhist monastery in China. The poem on the upper right side can be understood both as a reference to the artist’s early wanderings and as a metaphor for the Buddhist quest for enlightenment to which he dedicated his life. This painting’s provenance traces back to the collector Wang Nanping (1924–1985), a Chinese industrialist who settled in Hong Kong just before the communist takeover of China in 1949. This is one of a relatively small number of Chinese paintings in the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection, but its inclusion illustrates Sherman E. Lee’s efforts in promoting Chinese paintings of later periods, including the Yuan (1271–1368), Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911), which received little attention from American collectors in the first half of the twentieth century.
Lobed Dish
China
Ming period (1368–1644), early 15th century (probably Yongle era, 1403–1424)
Carved cinnabar lacquer on wood or cloth
Asia Society, New York: Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection, 1979.122

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This elegantly decorated dish was included in Sherman E. Lee’s book A History of Far Eastern Art to illustrate the culminating achievement of Chinese lacquer in the Ming period. A six-character inscription incised on the base of the dish dates it to the Yongle era. To create the design, the artist applied multiple coats of lacquer to a substructure and then carved into the lacquer. The decoration in the center of the dish depicts a scene of two gentlemen conversing in a garden, set in relief against three different geometric patterns used to indicate sky, water, and a paved yard. The interior of the lobed rim is decorated with auspicious floral patterns.
Bottle
North China, probably from Xiuwu or Cizhou
Northern Song period (960–1127), 12th century
Stoneware with sgraffito design in slip under glaze (Cizhou ware)
Asia Society, New York: Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection, 1979.141

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This twelfth-century bottle, which may have been used as a wine container, is among the finest examples of Cizhou ware. The bold peony patterns that decorate the robust body of the vase were created using a technique called sgraffito: the body of the vessel was first coated with a white slip (or clay wash) and then with a black slip. After the outlines of the design were incised into the black slip, parts of the black slip were shaved away to reveal the white underneath.

This bottle was in the collection of Madame Bréal of Paris, the wife of a diplomat at the French embassy in Peking (present-day Beijing) in the 1920s and 1930s, who acquired it from a shop in Peking. The Rockefellers purchased it in 1977 from a dealer who offered it to them at the request of Sherman E. Lee.

Bowl
China, Jiangxi Province
Ming period (1368–1644), early 15th century (probably Xuande era, 1426–1435)
Porcelain painted with underglaze cobalt blue (Jingdezhen ware)
Asia Society, New York: Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection, 1979.169

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The form and decoration of this large bowl capture early fifteenth-century Chinese imperial taste. Carefully depicted against the white background, the decorative motifs in cobalt blue of flowers and fruits create a pleasingly balanced design. The bowl had been in the collection of Jean-Pierre Dubosc, the renowned French connoisseur of Chinese art, who was stationed in China as a diplomat during the 1930s and 40s. The Rockefellers acquired the bowl in 1962 through the prominent dealer of Chinese art J. T. Tai, who fled China in the late 1940s.
Covered jar
China, Jiangxi Province
Ming period (1368–1644), Jiajing era (1522–1566)
Porcelain painted with underglaze cobalt blue and overglaze enamels (Jingdezhen ware with wucai or “five-color” decoration)
Asia Society, New York: Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection, 1979.182a, b

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This covered jar with a bright and lively pattern of fish and aquatic plants exemplifies the highly developed five-color (wucai) enamels created during the Jiajing era of the Chinese Ming period. The five-color technique no longer relied on outlines in underglaze blue as the joined colors (doucai) technique had; painters, instead, could paint enamels directly onto the fired glaze. This new technique allowed the painter to work in a freer and more detailed manner. A six-character Jiajing-reign mark appears on the base of this jar.