The language of nature: East Asian decorative art with floral and animal motifs in British and Irish country house collections.
This lecture draws on the research for Emile’s forthcoming book Borrowed Landscapes, on the impact of China and Japan on the historic houses and gardens of the National Trust, to be published in autumn 2023. Using the methodology of orientalism, this book will look at how country houses, their collections and gardens reflect the reception history of East Asian material culture in the British Isles.
In this talk Emile will discuss the use of floral and animal motifs on Chinese and Japanese porcelain, lacquer and silk, and the role those objects played in British interiors from 1600 onwards. Much of this East Asian visual language was lost in translation, but at the same time it did become embedded in the British cultural tradition through its association with luxury and sophistication.
We are grateful to Woolley & Wallis for their sponsorship of the refreshments.
Speaker
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Emile de BruijnAssistant Curator Decorative Arts, The National TrustEmile de Bruijn studied Japanese at the University of Leiden (The Netherlands) and museology at the University of Essex (United Kingdom). After working in the Japanese and Chinese art departments of the auctioneers Sotheby’s in London, he joined the National Trust, a charity which looks after places of history, beauty and nature in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, where he currently works as a decorative arts curator. In 2017 he published the monograph Chinese Wallpaper in Britain and Ireland (Philip Wilson Publishers).
