Page 115 - C.T. Loo A paper about his impact and activities in the Chinese art Market

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outlined the characteristics and developmental stages of the major categories in Chinese

art. Loo carefully collected study materials and put them in his library. 252 Loo

demonstrated his knowledge about style, medium, and period. For example, in his offer

of several terracotta figures Loo explained to the RISD director L. E. Rowe, “The

kneeling figure shows its feet in the back and wears a long large coat and has till some

pigments of paints. They are, I think, of the Han period, not only from the style but

especially by the dark clay. The one in the center has the typically fine features, slender

body and sloping shoulders…The other one which is an actor with outstretched arms is of

a later period as the clay is white. The same type of figure is illustrated in Hobson’s book

‘Chinese Pottery and Porcelain’…” 253

Loo was in close contact with a galaxy of preeminent scholars, including Paul Pelliot,

Berthold Laufer, Alfred Salmony, Michael I. Rostovtzeff, Bernhard Karlgren, and Jean-

Pierre Dubosc, with whom he launched some of the most important publication projects

of his time in the field of Chinese art. 254 Between 1915 and 1950, Loo was responsible

252 C. T. Loo to K. Tomita, May 7, 1947, folder C. T. Loo, box: I to L, 1936-1947,
AAOA-MFA.
253
C. T. Loo to L.E. Rowe, February 11, 1925, folder, C. T. Loo & Co.1945-1949,
RISDA.
254 Loo was not alone in his role in promoting publication and scholarship. Siegfried
Bing, the foremost French dealer of Oriental art in the nineteenth century, started to
publish the lavishly illustrated periodical Le Japon artistique in 1881 by using the most
modern reproduction techniques to produce illustrations of the exquisite Japanese objects.
The periodical merged as “one of the most visible and popular manifestations of
Japonisme” (Weisburg 1990, 23) and played a crucial role in promoting Bing’s business.
Ernest F. Fenollosa’s influential book Epochs of Chinese and Japanese Art was originally
conceived as a course of twelve lectures and published in 1907 by the leading Oriental art
dealer, the Yamanaka & Company. The renowned scholar Umehara Sueji’s Toso seika
(1929) and Obei shucho Shina kodo seika (1933), a seven-volume study of ancient
Chinese bronzes in European and American collections were also funded by Yamanaka