PARIS.- A relatively little-known fact: Chinese art can be found at the Louvre. The Department of Decorative Arts holds more than 600 Chinese works, most of which come from the collections of Adolphe Thiers and Adèle de Rothschild and from the royal collections. Among them, some veritable treasures are to be found.

A number of these were highlighted by recent research among the collection of Adolphe Thiers, who was a journalist, historian, and a major political figure in the 19th century (as deputy, minister, president of the council and, ultimately, president of the French Republic).

The exhibition aims to reveal these exceptional works to the general public, putting them in the historical, diplomatic and cultural context of their creation and their acquisition by Thiers for his collection. It explores Thiers’s little-known passion for China.

The exhibition presents over 170 works dating mainly from the 18th and 19th centuries: scrolls, album pages, engravings, prints, porcelains, jades, lacquers, and precious objets d’art in ivory, bronze, or wood inlaid with gems and mother-of-pearl. The first part of the exhibition presents Adolphe Thiers, his particular vision of art, his collecting practices and his passion for the Renaissance. The second part, the heart of the exhibition, presents the full collection of Chinese art. Thiers, in view of publishing a work on Chinese art, concurrently collected books, documents and objets d’art related to the subject. The exhibition highlights the major themes of his collection: ancient and contemporary history, images of China (landscapes, architecture and dress), some staples of Chinese culture (language, literature and the literati), the ‘Three Teachings’ (Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism), Chinese porcelain (of which he was an expert of renown), and, finally, imperial art. The collection holds a number of masterpieces in this last area, including an exceptional scroll, the Qingming shanghe tu created for the Qianlong emperor.

ASIA AT THE LOUVRE – A LONG HISTORY

Since its very opening in 1793, the Musée du Louvre has been home to Chinese and Japanese objects from the French royal collections; other Asian pieces were progressively added to these ensembles until the first half of the 20th century. In 1945, as the national collections were being reallocated, the Louvre’s Department of Asian Arts was transferred to the Musée Guimet.

However, a number of Asian artworks stayed at the Louvre: objects made in China for European clients, Chinese porcelains that were bronze-mounted to create Rococo pieces, and furniture embellished with Japanese lacquer panels. A testament to a complex and interconnected history.

Entering the Louvre in 1881 with the stipulation that it was to remain whole, the collection of prominent 19th-century figure Adolphe Thiers (1797–1877) thus joined objects of the same origin. Along with European works, it contains numerous Chinese objects that attest both to Thiers’s sinophilia (passion for China) and several centuries of interaction between Asia and Europe.

Revealing never-before-seen masterpieces from the Thiers collection, this exhibition shows that Asian art is still well and truly present at the Louvre.

ADOLPHE THIERS (1797–1877)

Born into a poor petit bourgeois family from Marseille, Adolphe Thiers moved to Paris in 1820. Soon gaining prominence as a journalist and historian of the French Revolution, he would later become a politician, remaining active – in one capacity or another – under every regime. A liberal monarchist, he was instrumental in the overthrow of King Charles X in 1830, and was made minister under Louis-Philippe (reigned 1830–1848). Appointed head of the new government after France’s capitulation to Prussia in 1871, he crushed the Paris Commune and negotiated the withdrawal of the occupying forces. Becoming president of the Republic, he would be proclaimed the ‘liberator of the territory’. His funeral in 1877 was attended by a million Parisians.

Throughout his career, Thiers garnered both admiration and hate: ambitious and erudite, and a compulsive worker of exceptional intelligence according to his supporters, he was described as corrupt, immoral, arrogant and pretentious by his enemies. For Thiers, art and culture were means to be employed on his constant quest for fame and recognition from high society. Thiers’s passion for China, likely one of his few true interests, was nevertheless part of this endeavour.

A Man of Power

Thiers soon gained prominence, building a large network through his positions as journalist, newspaper publisher, historian, member of the Académie Française, political representative, minister and President of the Council. The press published engravings depicting him first as a bright, ambitious young man and later as a statesman. Caricatures, on the other hand, ridiculed his short stature (155 cm) and ungainly physique, deriding his careerism and his unyielding defence of bourgeois interests. Thiers made continued efforts to regain control of his public image and to portray himself as a man of letters, an art connoisseur and a statesman.

Adolphe Thiers – Culture and the Making of a Collection

Thiers made a show of his interest in art and history to justify his place in high society. He gained renown as a journalist when he stood up in defence of painter Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863) between 1822 and 1824. An avid collector, he bought objects of prestigious origin at auction. His approach to purchasing art was unusual in that it was intended to inform his writings on art. In 1834–1835, he began writing a history of Florence, and, after 1840, an art history of the world where he intended to present both Western and Chinese art. This project would take him on a trip around Europe, where he would visit museums and palaces, and commission artists to reproduce masterpieces. He amassed notes, books, original art and reproductions that would serve as source documents for his writings.

A Collection on Show

In the 1830s, Thiers started to make his collecting work known to the public. As he then held a ministry office, he was immediately accused of misappropriating public funds to finance his collection. His Parisian mansion in Place Saint-Georges and his study, which housed his collected objects, became an integral part of Thiers’s public image. In 1871, France’s capitulation to Prussia triggered a Parisian uprising – the Paris Commune. Elected head of the new government, Thiers besieged the city; the Communards retaliated by confiscating his collection and demolishing his mansion. Many of his Chinese pieces were destroyed on this occasion, most notably his red lacquer objects and his oldest porcelains.

Image Politics

In 1845, Thiers started commissioning imagery to publicise his collecting work. Engravings depicting his Parisian mansion and study accompanied newspaper articles and publications written in his honour by his followers. He had himself portrayed as a collector on the cover of the 1845 edition of his History of the Consulate and the Empire of France; the 1865 edition featured an updated engraving showing an older-looking Thiers. Later images show the destruction and reconstruction of his mansion and study.

Monsieur Thiers’s Study

This space contains Thiers’s furniture and objets d’art, mimicking the layout of his Parisian study in Place Saint-Georges, where Thiers would shut himself away to write in the company of his books and artworks. His small sculptures and Chinese vases were placed atop the low bookshelves lining the walls; hung above these were large watercolour reproductions of masterpieces of European painting.

A Florentine Passion

This display case illustrates Thiers’s penchant for the Italian Renaissance (14th–16th century) and the work he carried out with a view to writing a history of Florence. He would travel to Italy many times, corresponding with specialists in order to gather information, as he had first done while writing his History of the French Revolution. While he never completed his Florentine project, he did assemble a vast amount of notes, objects and artworks, at times inadvertently purchasing pieces of major significance.

ADOLPHE THIERS AND CHINA

Thiers’s fascination with China began in adolescence. In China, the period between his youthful beginnings and his death in 1877 was marked by the Opium Wars (1839–1842 and 1857–1860), which Thiers opposed. Paradoxically, these violent episodes would lead Europeans to learn more about China. Once the country was forced to open its borders, Europeans travelled there in droves.

Thiers would never travel to China himself, but he communicated with a sizeable network of individuals who did. These diplomats, military officers, travellers, missionaries, merchants, sinologists (Chinese culture specialists), specialist antiques dealers and Chinese nationals travelling through Europe acted as a conduit for knowledge, books, documents and artworks from or related to China, allowing Thiers to gain insight into this culture, to the extent it was possible at the time.

His collection depicts some aspects of China and its culture better than others. In the next part of the exhibition, his books, artworks and documents are grouped by overarching subject: history, geography and travel, literati culture, religion, porcelain, and finally, imperial art.

Adolphe Thiers and his Chinese Library

Thiers acquired dozens of books that extensively discuss various aspects of Chinese culture. Sinologists and travellers also sent him signed copies of their publications. Thiers was a historian: a large portion of his library consisted of books on general Chinese history, antiquity, the Mongol period (1279–1368) and, above all, the Qing dynasty, who ruled China during his lifetime.

The library also contained publications and maps describing contemporary Chinese issues, namely the Opium Wars (1839–1842 and 1857–1860) and the Taiping Rebellion (1851–1864). Thiers also acquired objects connected to these events, often from direct witnesses.

China and Europe in the 18th Century

The 18th century was a period of prolific interaction between China and Europe. Present at the Imperial Court of Beijing, the Jesuit order published numerous texts discussing Chinese religion, society and culture, which fuelled European debate about the nature of the country’s religions. China served as inspiration for the enlightened government envisioned by the philosophers of Europe’s Enlightenment; European East India companies transported colossal quantities of porcelain, silk and other products from China to be sold at home; and, at the very end of the century, European ambassadors were finally allowed to visit the imperial court.

China in Adolphe Thiers’s Day

China’s history was marked by two major events in Thiers’s lifetime. European attacks aiming to force China to open to European trade and buy opium, known as the Opium Wars, began in 1839. The military operation ended with the 1860 campaign that saw English and French troops pillage and set fire to the Old Summer Palace – an imperial residence on the outskirts of Beijing – along with its library. At the same time, the ruling Qing dynasty had to contend with the Taiping Rebellion (1851–1864), a bloody uprising that caused between 20 and 30 million deaths.

Maps and Geography

Maps and geography fascinated Thiers. While writing his History of the French Revolution, he often travelled across Europe to familiarise himself with the topography of its battlefields. It was his belief that, in order to understand historical events, one had to be acquainted with the places where they unfolded. His histories therefore include atlases.

Thiers’s interest in contemporary Chinese issues led him to purchase various publications about the country. These contained maps of China and Asia. He also procured large formats, including a piece showing operations carried out during the Opium Wars.

Picturing China

To the very practical Thiers, seeing was understanding. Having never been to China himself – he decided at the last minute against a trip that would have taken him there in 1829 – Thiers collected illustrated publications, prints and paintings depicting the country’s landscapes, architecture and traditional clothing. With a collection combining works by travellers and Chinese paintings made for exportation or for local clients, Thiers was one of the very first European collectors of Chinese paintings. In 1856, art historian Félix Feuillet de Conches (1798–1887) remarked that his collection was considered one of the best in Paris.

Travellers

From 1839 onwards, after the first treaties were imposed on China, the country granted entry to European travellers, traders and missionaries. While there, the artistically inclined among them sketched and painted watercolours. Usually, however, they took home made-for-export painting albums as souvenirs. These were painted for Western clients by artists in Canton (Guangzhou) and Hong Kong, mandatory transit points for every traveller. A rare few purchased classical Chinese scroll paintings. Thiers befriended several of these travellers, such as the Abbé Huc (1813–1860) and Charles Marchal de Lunéville (1801–after 1865), some of whom would gift or sell him artworks.

Chinese Culture in the Collection

The collection presents an incomplete picture of Chinese culture. However, Thiers’s library and collection show that he was aware of the existence of the literati (China’s administrative and cultural elite) and of the importance of language, writing and poetry in China. The artworks in his collection depict in equal measure literary subjects and traditional decorations – most notably hua niao ‘flowers and birds’. However, Thiers seems to have been less interested in certain essential components of Chinese culture, such as agriculture, silk, tea and rice. Some pieces appear to have been collected as curios rather than due to a deep awareness of their significance, reflecting the period’s nascent understanding of Chinese culture.

Literature, Language, Writing

Language and writing sit at the heart of traditional Chinese culture. The country’s elite was made up of literati (shi), who had to take examinations assessing their familiarity with classical Chinese texts in order to be admitted into the imperial service. They painted and practised calligraphy using the Four Treasures of the Study: brush, ink, paper and inkstone. Through his books, Thiers also learned about their penchant for literature, especially poetry. A large number of objects from his collection are adorned with scenes from Chinese novels and poems, which he had sinologists explain to him.

Nature in Chinese Art

Nature is ubiquitous in art created under the Qing dynasty, which ruled China in Thiers’s day. Making up the bulk of his collection, objects from this period usually feature animals, flowers, fruits or other assorted plants. Far from being purely decorative, these images allude to poetry, historical and literary anecdotes, as well as magical symbolism. For instance, the peach is a Daoist symbol of immortality. Distinctly Chinese homophonic puns are also illustrated in art: bat is pronounced ‘fu’, like the words good fortune/happiness and prosperity.

The Three Teachings

In place of a dominant religion, China had the ‘Three Teachings’ (san jiao): Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. The first of these is a philosophy of social order, the second is a philosophy and a religion that incorporates popular beliefs, and the third is both a religion and a philosophy.

The three coexisting, interacting teachings were not well understood in the Europe of Thiers’s time. Thiers, who owned a set of publications on Chinese religions, was a close friend of Buddhism expert Jules Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire (1805–1895). He also communicated with virtually every author and sinologist of his time that had published a work on Asian religions – for instance, Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat, Stanislas Julien, Guillaume Pauthier, Julius Klaproth and Joseph-Marie Callery.

Daoism

Daoism is a Chinese philosophy and religion that emphasises harmony with the Dao, or the ‘Path’. Predominantly based on the ideas of Laozi, or Lao Tzu, which were articulated in the 6th-century-BC Daodejing. Daoism preaches simplicity, spontaneity and balance between the opposing forces of yin and yang. Its central concept – non-doing (wu wei) – encourages effortless action through letting nature take its course. Daoism also has an alchemical aspect, with a strong focus on the pursuit of immortality; this has significantly influenced Chinese attitudes to health and the physical body, particularly in the domains of medicine and martial arts.

Confucianism

Based on the ideas of Confucius (6th century BC), Confucianism is a philosophy centred on ethics and social relationships. It preaches the virtues of benevolence (ren), justice (yi), filial piety and wisdom. Education, rituals and moral governance are prerequisites for a harmonious society. Social order is maintained through the ‘Five Relationships’ that govern human interactions: ruler and subject, father and son, husband and wife, elder and younger brother, friends. Confucianism permeates education, politics and social norms.

Buddhism

Emerging in India, Buddhism was inspired by the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, known as ‘Buddha’ (6th or 5th century BC). It teaches that suffering can be ended through understanding the Four Noble Truths: that suffering exists, that it has a cause (desire), that it can end, and that there is a way to end it (the Noble Eightfold Path). Meditation, compassion and wisdom are its central concepts. Buddhism is divided into three main branches – Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana – all of which have different practices and interpretations of dharma (the ‘order of things’). Thiers’s Buddhist art pieces date from the Qing dynasty, which promoted Mahayana-derived Tibetan Buddhism in the China of his day.

Adolphe Thiers – Chinese Porcelain Specialist

Thiers was one of the great Chinese porcelain connoisseurs of his time, accumulating notes throughout his life in view of one day publishing a book on the topic. He proofread and edited the only two publications on Chinese porcelain produced in his lifetime: The History and Manufacturing of Chinese Porcelain by Stanislas Julien (1856) and The Artistic, Industrial and Commercial History of Porcelain by Albert Jacquemart (1862). Thiers’s collection, which included pieces from the most significant period for Chinese porcelain (Song dynasty, 960–1279), was considered a reference before its partial destruction at the hands of the Communards. The surviving group contains an absolute masterpiece, the falangeai bottle made for the Qianlong Emperor (1736–1795), and a number of items from the reign of Yongzheng (1723–1735), most of which were made for exportation to Europe.

Imperial Art in the Adolphe Thiers Collection

Thiers owned very important imperial works of art, none of which appear to be spoils of the sacking of the Old Summer Palace. He was, in fact, a well-known opponent of the Opium Wars. Charles Blanc, who made a catalogue of his collection, noted that Thiers had assembled it long before the 1860 expedition. Due to the destruction of his archives in 1871, it is not known how the imperial objects were acquired – with the exception of two paintings gifted by Charles Marchal de Lunéville. Between 1850 and 1853, the latter travelled to China by way of Russia. He would return with artworks from Beijing, where he spent a year. Thiers did not understand the significance of these pieces, mistaking his Qingming shanghe tu, a very important scroll depicting the city of Kaifeng during the Qingming festival, for an ordinary view of Beijing.