| Running from tomorrow (April 11) to June 15 at the Hong Kong Museum of Art, "Paris 1730-1930: A Taste for China" will feature about 170 works of Chinese art selected from various cultural institutes in France. The exhibits include exquisite porcelain, lacquer, bronzes, furniture, drawings, prints and paintings, showing the influence of Chinese aesthetics in Paris from the 18th to the early 20th century. In the early 18th century, the goods arrived Paris in very big lots. Some merchants made a specialty out of mounting in gilt-bronze items of Chinese porcelain or lacquer-work meant for the court. This kind of artefact, which combined the taste for porcelain and Chinese lacquer-work with that for bronze-work in the Louis XV and Louis XVI styles, became the fashion of that epoch. Picture shows a ormolu-mounted pot-pourris in turquoise glaze with gilt-bronze decoration. |
