Chinese History in European Museums

There are a number of European museums with decent permanent collections of classic Chinese art, like British Museum in London or le Musée Guimet in Paris. Unfortunately, I do not think anyone matches the big American collections at for example the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York or the MFA in Boston.

However, right now there are a number of interesting temporary exhibitions in Europe.

In Zürich, there is an exposition at Museum Rietberg with paintings by the Qing (清) dynasty 18th century painter Luó Pìn (罗聘), whom the museum strangely enough calls Luo Ping.

The poets Hánshān (寒山) and Shídé (拾得). Painting by Luó Pìn.


In Paris, at the Musée Cernuschi, there is an exposition with restored paintings from the 15th century all the way to the 19th century, covering both the Ming (明) and Qing (清) dynasties as well as the republican China.

The mythical figure Zhōng Kuí (鍾馗). Ink painting at the Musée Cernuschi by Lǐ Shìzhuō (李世倬) (1690?-1770?).


But the strangest exposition is probably the one at the Louvre. It contains stamps and drawings executed in 18th century Europe by European artists on commission from the Chinese emperor Qiánlóng (乾隆). Qiánlóng wanted documentation of his war 1755-1759, and for some reason, he chose to ask European artists to illustrate it. It took the European artists seven years to fulfil the request, but we do not know much on how well the work was received in Beijing.

The magnificence and level of detail of the stamps are unfortunately difficult to render on the web, and the printed catalogue is of too small size to do them justice. A visit to the Louvre is well worth it to see the originals before the exhibition ends 18th May 2009.


Nicolas de Launay after Jean Damascene. The battle at Yešil-köl-nör.