| dc.description.abstract | What did Westerners consider Chinese art in the beginning of the 20th Century? The researches on this issue have not been enough. Therefore, this dissertation focuses on Laurence Binyon’s English book Painting in the Far East published in 1908, then delves into Song Painting, and examine the development of Chinese art historiography in the West during the early 20th Century.
Laurence Binyon (1869-1943) was a man of great versatility in Britain: a poet, a playwright, a literary critic, an art historian, and also a curator of British Museum. His art history publications went across West and East. Painting in the Far East was intended for introduction of Chinese and Japanese painting, subsequently reprinted for many times, and has considerably influenced the West. To analyze more objectively the position of Painting in the Far East, this dissertation compares this book and several other English books published approximately contemporaneously.
With regard to Song figure painting, Binyon only mentioned Li GongLin of Northern Song and appreciated Li GongLin’s works for being colorful and exquisite. However, this kind of style is attributed to that of professional artists of Southern Song and considered to be different from the real Li GongLin’s Baimiao style of brushwork by contemporary scholars. Regarding such a misunderstanding, this dissertation explores the sources of Binyon’s knowledge of Chinese art history in order to find out the reason behind. In addition, Binyon did not mention ink figure painings of Liang Kai and Mu Qi. This dissertation proposes an explanation from the representational point of view that Binyon still kept the western tradition of seeing.
All the works related to Song landscape and flower-bird painting in Painting in the Far East are Southern Song style. It is evident that Binyon’s conception of Song landscape painting is incomprehensive and fragmentary. Actually, his view was much influenced by Japanese. On the other hand Binyon made an analogy to western art history with terms like Renaissance and the idea of modern. For him, the Song painting seemed to echo with the minds of the nineteenth century in Europe. This dissertation, in addition to clarifying Binyon’s conception of Song landscape and flower-bird painting by analyzing texts and works of art, intends to probe into cultural exchange between China and Japan, and between East and West. | en_US |