Chinese Art in Early Modern Europe and America

FAIN: FA-252681-17

Dawn V. Odell
Lewis and Clark College (Portland, OR 97219-8091)

Preparation of a book on André Everard van Braam Houckgeest (1739-1801), who worked for the Dutch East India Company in Asia, settled in Philadelphia, and was one of the first to promote Chinese art and culture in the city.

My project studies a rich moment in the history of artistic engagement between China, Europe, and the United States by focusing on a remarkable figure, André Everard van Braam Houckgeest. Author, draughtsman, art collector, and active member of the French-Dutch émigré community in Philadelphia, van Braam lived in Guangzhou and Macao and served as a member of the Dutch East India Company's diplomatic mission to the Beijing court. Van Braam became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1784 and presented Philadelphia audiences with the first public display of Chinese art in America. Through the lens of his confrontation with Chinese visual culture, and specifically through his curation of Chinese landscape painting and porcelain, I explain how van Braam’s experience forms the basis for today’s conversations about global art markets, ethnicity, trade imbalances, and diplomatic negotiations.