Dawn Odell

This workshop explores a rich moment in the history of artistic engagement between China, Europe, and the United States by focusing on a recently rediscovered collection of Chinese art amassed in the eighteenth century by Andreas Everardus van Braam Houckgeest (1739-1801). Van Braam lived much of his life in Guangzhou and was a member of the Dutch East India Company's last diplomatic mission to the Beijing court. When van Braam returned to the United States, he presented Philadelphia audiences with what is considered to be the first curated display of Chinese art in the United States. Our workshop seeks to understand van Braam's life and art collection as early models of European and American engagement with Chinese art, cross-cultural translation, and globalization.