Page 25 - Irving Collection Part II Chinese Art

“ We have enjoyed the activity of collecting as much as we
have savored living with these works of art. Now the pleasure

is ours of sharing our collection with the public.”

FLORENCE AND HERBERT IRVING

has beneftted their collection enormously.” In the years The Irvings’ personal ties to dealers, curators, and
that followed their frst purchase, the couple amassed a fellow collectors grew in tandem with their collection.
sizable grouping of sculpture, decorative art, ceramics, Each work, whether of masterpiece quality or more
and painting from China, Japan, Korea, India, and modest value, was viewed as an opportunity to develop
Southeast Asia. Poster described the “curatorial way” in connoisseurship. Early on, Boney suggested that
which the Irvings collected, taking into account factors the couple ask themselves a simple question when
such as condition, size, restoration, and visual impact considering each potential acquisition: “Does it talk
with the skill of seasoned experts. Former Metropolitan to me?” At the heart of Boney’s query was a belief
Museum of Art curator Martin Lerner remembered in a kind of inefable, captivating quality that would
that frst seeing the Irvings’ assemblage, in the 1980s: run throughout the Irving Collection. “You look at
“I knew I was in the home of serious and knowledgeable something with your eyes,” Mr. Irving explained, “and
collectors. I was surprised by what they had been it’s a feeling that works its way into your brain.” The
doing, by how much they had acquired, and by how Irvings’ residences in Manhattan and Long Island
good it was.” became repositories for an assemblage of Asian art
that was at once historically important and profoundly
Behind the Irvings’ commendable acquisition strategy personal—a true dialogue between collector and
was a network of dealers and experts that came to feel collection. In Old Westbury, Mrs. Irving even created
like family. Throughout their journey in collecting, the an Asian-style garden, ensuring that her collecting
Irvings were keen not only to acquire masterworks of vision encompassed both indoors and out. Situated
Asian art, but also to build enduring relationships. “They amongst masterful Chinese scholars’ objects, Korean
are friends,” the New York Times noted in a profle of the lacquerware, Japanese paintings, and Indian sculpture
Irvings and their circle, “whom the couple has collected was the Irvings’ carved jade head rest—their very frst
as passionately as they’ve collected art.” This earnest, purchase from Boney that always retained pride of
heartfelt approach solidifed the Irvings’ reputation place. It was a reminder of how far they had come, and
as cherished fgures in Asian art. Among their close of the many friends they had made along the way.
circle of dealer friends were Boney and Ellsworth,
Roger Keverne in London, and Klaus F. Naumann in TO OWN AND TO SHARE
Tokyo. “The Irving Collection,” Anita Christy wrote in Florence and Herbert Irving held an unwavering faith
Orientations magazine, “is the culmination of three in the civic power of art. As their private collection
decades of collaboration between themselves and the matured, so did their conviction that it should be
dealers and curators who became their friends.” Mr. enjoyed by the public. “In every collector there is a wish
Irving put it even more simply: “If you have a serious to own and a wish to share,” the Irvings noted in 1991,
collector-dealer relationship it becomes part of your “that are not necessarily incompatible.” In the galleries
friendship. We never had a dealer who didn’t become of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the couple saw an
a friend.” opportunity to change lives; through their generosity,

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