Page 156 - C.T. Loo A paper about his impact and activities in the Chinese art Market

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Loo performed “Frenchness/Europeanness”, synonymous with art and refinement, in

order to enhance his image as a cultivated dealer with exquisite taste. 327 France played an

importance role in shaping the Western perception of China and Chinese art from the

seventeenth century onward. The interest in China constituted an important chapter in

French art and intellectual history. Paris in the seventeenth century was one of the

greatest markets for Chinese curios. Chinoiserie, the European appropriation and

transformation of Chinese art originated from France. Chinese materials and motifs were

combined into contemporary furniture making and other arts and crafts production. In the

nineteenth century, France, as one of the world’s earliest and leading center of Chinese

language and culture studies outside China, boasted a generation of brilliant scholars and

fearless explorers including Edouard Chavannes, Paul Pelliot, and Victor Segalen.

Europeanness/Frenchness as the emblem for art and glamour in America was also

manifested in the formation of a powerful community of European art dealers in New

York in the late nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth centuries. The French art

dealers Paul Durand-Ruel and Ambroise Vollard were spreading the gospel of

Impressionism and modern art to the newly rich Americans. The British dealer Lord

327 Dealers like Duveen Brothers Inc. and John Sparks also capitalized on Europeanness
or Britishness in America. Ben Duveen wrote to JDR Jr, “I must frankly admit that I
never realized it was your intention to acquire such high class pieces such as you have
lately acquired. I would most assuredly have arranged to show you some of the great
examples which we have in our European House…”(Ben Duveen to JDR Jr. February 28,
1914, folder 1330, Duveen Brothers 1914-1952, box 133, OMR- RAC) Similarly, John
Sparks played up its “Britishness”. In the letter to JDR Jr. F. Abbot wrote, “I have just
arrived from England, and have unpacked some very nice porcelains, amongst which are
a very wonderful pair of large Famille Verte Vases in perfect condition which I should
very much like you to have first look at. The only one of its kind I have ever seen in all
my experience is at the British Museum not so fine in shape or colour.”(F. Abbott to JDR
Jr. December 18, 1921, folder 1428, John Sparks 1920-1921, box 142, OMR-RAC)