British interest in Chinese painting, 1881-1910 : the Anderson and Wegener collections of Chinese painting in the British Museum

In 1881, the British Museum made its first major acquisition of Japanese and Chinese paintings from Dr William Anderson. Among more than 3,000 pieces of Japanese art which Anderson brought from Tokyo to London, 114 pieces of Chinese painting came to form important examples for British understanding of Chinese pictorial art. When Laurence Binyon took charge of the acquisitions and exhibitions of Oriental painting at the Museum, a second significant purchase of 145 Chinese paintings from Frau Olga-Julia Wegener was made in 1910. It came to form a catalyst for boosting British understanding of Chinese painting. One collection having been imported from Japan and the other from China, a comparison of the Anderson and Wegener collections will be made in order to explore changes in British taste and the growth of knowledge of Chinese pictorial art between 1881 and 1910.