Hello and welcome to "Insider Insights".
My name is Ann Meisinger.
I'm an Assistant Educator in Public Programs at The Met.
While the museum is temporarily closed, we're bringing The Met to you with a series of close looks
at objects from The Met collection with Met experts.
We hope you'll join us as we debut a new program in the series each week.
Today we'll be joined by my colleague Jason Sun, the Brooke Russell Astor Curator of Chinese Art.
Who will be talking about a renowned collection of
jade that was gifted to The Met by the collector Heber Bishop in 1902.
This magnificent collection of jade is one of the largest and most comprehensive in
the world. So thank you Jason for joining us to tell us all about it.
Thank you, Ann. I'm very pleased to have this opportunity to introduce you to the
very remarkable collection of Heber Bishop.
Heber Bishop was born in a small town, Medford, outside Boston.
He was born in 1840 in a very old English family.
He received some business training when he was very young and
at age of 16 he began to work as a clerk in an import and export company near Boston.
Three years after, a great opportunity knocked on his door.
He was sent by the company and the representative to work in Cuba, where the sugar industry was booming
Bishop went to Cuba and two years after, with his talent and his skills in
business, he was able to established his own business of sugar refining,
an expert company. And 10 years after he made a great fortune.
In 1873 he sold his business and returned to New York.
He started to invest in railroads and utilities. And he was known
to be a dynamic force in the building of the Third Avenue elevated train.
And he was also a major, major participant in the development of American West
At the same time, he played a very active role in charity work.
Especially in terms of hospitals and museums. He was a staunch supporter of
the American Natural History Museum. Of American Museum of Natural History and also
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. He was elected a trustee of
The Metropolitan Museum in 1882. Bishop was known to be an avid collector and a
constant visitor of art sales and exhibitions. He was initially collecting
both Chinese, and Japanese, and also some European art, but a very special
purchase, I think that made a fundamental change in his collecting activities.
In 1878 he came across a jade vase at Tiffany's.
Tiffany's at that time, Tiffany also sold antiques.
He bought this very large vase, which was carved from a pale green jade.
Ah, this is the portrait of Bishop and old house of his family in the in Medford near Boston
And this is the very vase and he purchased
and that was the first piece of jade carving in his collection.
This is very large vase. It was actually a brush holder for the Chinese to hold the
brushes for writing or for painting. And on the wall of this nine inches tall
brush holder are numerous figures created by a master jade carver,
it describes, or it depicts a scene of a very friendly scholarly gathering of the most famous
Chinese master calligrapher Wang Xizhi and his friends.
They were sitting among trees and by a stream, drinking wine, composing poems, and having
a great time. And in the detail on my right you can see the little cups.
These are the little cups here, and these are little cups here, it comes down the stream so
all the figures were sitting there and picking up their wine cups to drink.
Right next there is a great lovely, lively scene and the Bishop was very
much impressed by this marvelous work of jade.
What you probably are asking is what is jade?
Jade is the mineral Nephrite, is one of the hard stones, that is much
harder than steel. It can only be shaved by grating it with very hard abrasives.
And it is a very laborious of process to work with jade.
It usually take days, weeks, or even months to complete a work.
For example, a work like this would take several months to finish. So when Bishop learned about
jade, its properties, and the way it works and how intricate, how complex
this marvelous scene was created. He was so impressed
and he was inspired. He wanted to collect nothing but jade. And he resolved upon a
visit to Europe because he knew, or he heard that many great Chinese jade carvings
were brought by the Europeans back to Europe.
So they traveled to England,
France, Holland, Germany, and even Turkey.
He went as far as Istanbul.
But he didn't stop there, because even though he collected some of the
finest pieces that he was able to find, he still wanted more. So he decided to
travel to where the sources were. He went to China, he traveled to Beijing for
three weeks, and there he said he purchased some of the best pieces that
one could ever find, and the qualities were so good that you would not be able
to find anywhere else or at any time.
By the end of 19th century, he was able to
assemble a huge collection of jades. More than a thousand pieces, many of them were
master works created in 18th century, which were known to be a technical
virtuosity, an artistic accomplishment.
But at the same time after he had
acquired his large, impressive, this outstanding collection, he became
anxious. He was worried that his collection might be broken up later in
the days, or you know after he passed away, these collection might not stay as one
single collection that he spent so much time and effort to put them together.
He wanted to keep his collection intact for people's appreciation, enjoyment, and
for education to learn about jade, to learn about beauty so eventually he
decided to give his entire collection as a gift to The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
By being a trustee on the Museum, he knew that the Met was the best
place that could provide the best care and also do or make the best use of the
collection. So in 1902 his entire collection came to The Met
Well, among this collection there are some extraordinary pieces, one of these
pieces is huge, maybe I can say gigantic you know,
this very large, almost 3 feet wide base carved from a single block of dark green jade.
The craftsman worked out five dynamic dragons turning, twisting,
breathing in and out a cloud chasing this pearl, you know the flaming pearls.
It's a marvelous work, is one of the largest and is lauded here in
The Metropolitan Museum collection and I think is the largest piece outside China.
The Museum also has another set of gems from all these beautiful pieces
it's a small group of the 12 zodiac animals, each animal would represent a year in a
Chinese Lunar calendar, you see the rat, the bull, the tiger, the rabbit, the dragon, the snake, the horse
all twelve of them, each one represent a year in a Chinese six years
cycle, and even though they were all dressed, you know like a human figure,
but with animals heads, they each one would not
have individual character, because they each one would assume a different
posture and hold a different accessory in her hand, as you know a staff, a brush,
a flower pot, a fan, they were very lively figures.
It really demonstrates the mastery command of the jade, who was able to create very varied
postures with very varied characters of each of these figures.
Bishop collected not only Chinese jades, he also collected jade works created by the jade carvers of
India, of the Mughal Empire, which lasted from the 16th to 19th century.
These were the most exquisite works ever created. Here are two delightful examples:
a small bottle and also a handle of a sword in a shape of a horse head.
These are very small pieces, but they are so rich looking you can see that Indian
jade carving is different from the Chinese one. They usually would have a
thinner body and a softer luster. Most distinguishing character of the
Indian jade carving being in the use of gold and silver and precious stones inlays.
This gold and silver inlays on this small bottle not only embellish the surface but
also defines the contour of the work at the same time all these vibrant colors
of the semi-precious stones add this very luxurious effect and brilliance to these
beautiful pieces.
One other piece I think that stands out
in this collection is a very large pillow in the shape of a little boy.
This one is made of nephrite, nephrite is like, this one is made of jadeite, I should say.
Jadeite is another hard stone, as hard as nephrite but
has a more intense green color and a vitreous luster. Uh, I don't think the
photo here does justice to the piece itself, you really have to come to the museum
to see it in person. The little chubby boy is not only a work of art but
it is also a symbol in Chinese decorative art that expresses the wishes to have more
children, cause with more children
they will carry on the family line and this
is a wish not only for the Chinese and I think it's for a lot of people.
Well, I think there are also interesting old legendary stories about the Bishop Collection.
In the early 2000's, a couple who are major donors of the Metropolitan Museum,
Mr. and Mrs. Irving and the Irving's have been
a major benefactor of the museum, and they were very keen on Chinese art.
In the late 1990's they bought this big figure
which is quite sizable it's about 12 inches tall it has a round face and a
subtle smile. It holds this bowl or a plate.
It is like a kind of immortal's image in the Chinese Decorative Arts.
And they bought this one and later on, in the early 2000's, they decided to give this one as a gift,
to the Metropolitan Museum. That was not a surprise,
because the museum knew that they were very keen on Decorative Art of China and at
the same time they were always very generous with their collection but,
it was a total surprise to us. Oh, and this one was, oh this one had a match at the museum!
and that mate was the jade figure, on the right, that was given by Heber Bishop
as part of his collection about a hundred years ago.
This is where the intriguing story starts. The reunion of the two jade figures,
after almost a separation of a hundred years, is not only a tribute,
to the generosity of some of the museum's great benefactors,
I think it is also a testimony to how Bishop's legacy
that resonates with the future generations of collectors, scholars, art lovers,
and many, many visitors who come to see the Bishop Collection at
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Thank you.