A Study On Freer’s Process Of Collecting Chinese Cultural Relics

Since the middle and late 19th century,the international circulation of cultural relics has become more and more frequent,and a large number of Chinese cultural relics have been dispersed to various countries.Correspondingly,overseas Chinese art collections have gradually become large-scale,among which Charles Lang Freer,the American East Asian cultural relics collector,is one of the most famous.Under the influence of artists,sinologists and archaeologists,such as James Mc Neill Whistler,Ernest Fenollosa and Berthold Laufer,Freer has gone through the process of moving his interests from Europe to the East Asian and paying more attention to China from Japan.He respectively traveled to China in 1895,1907,1909 and 1910-1911.On the basis of the analyzing the relevant literature and historical materials such as Freer’s diary and the archives of the Smithsonian Institute,combing with the those relics collected in Freer Gallery of Arts,the author intends to sort out Freer’s academic background,travelling and collecting history in China,and then sort out the trajectory of his travel,collection and investigation,analyze the relationship between the modern collectors represented by Freer and the academic community,also the relationship with the cultural-relics collecting market.Then figure out the mode and operation mechanism of cultural relics outflow and collection,show the formation process of overseas Chinese cultural relics collection and the important role of archaeology.The article mainly discusses from the following five parts :The introduction reviews the general process of Freer’s cultural relics collecting history,briefly reviews the research results of both Chinese and foreign scholars on Freer’s several trips,collection and investigation activities in China and his collection of Chinese cultural relics,then analyzes the research status and research space,and expounds the research significance,ideas and methods of this article.The chapter one analyzes the situation of East Asian art research and cultural relics collection in the United States at the end of the 19 th century and the beginning of the 20 th century.On this basis,this chapter discusses the beginning,social background and aesthetic preference of Freer’s involvement in cultural relics collection.The chapter two takes time as a clue,discusses Freer’s the first two trips,cultural relics collection activities and related achievements in China in 1895 and 1907 under the influence of art and archeology theories though by Whistler and Fenollosa.The chapter three discusses Freer’s travel,collecting programs and investigation activities in China during 1909 and 1910-1911 along the time line.Through the analysis of Freer’s communication with Duanfang,John Ferguson and other famous collectors,the collection of cultural relics,the circulation process of a jade objects numbered as F1917.396.1,and the sightseeing and investigation of historical sites such as Longmen Grottoes and Gongxian Grottoes,it shows Freer’s history of travel,collection and investigation in China,and his collection mode and operation mechanism of Chinese cultural relics and the influence of archeology.The conclusion summarize the research results of the article.