Among well‐established Asian art collections, the Freer Gallery in Washington, DC, having opened to the public in 1923, boasts of its long history. The original collection was a bequest of Charles Lang Freer (1854–1919), who ran a railroad‐car factory in Detroit. By analyzing his collection of Asian art objects as well as his friendship with contemporary intellectuals, I would like to discuss the meaning of his collection as well as those of other Asian art enthusiasts in the context of the antimodernism prevalent among the bourgeoisie who profited from the post‐Civil War economic prosperity. Wealthy entrepreneurs who accumulated unprecedented fortunes during the Gilded Age (1870s and 1880s) include John D. Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, John Pierpont Morgan, Henry Walters, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Frick, and Charles Lang Freer, among others. Most of them worked in the railroad industry and became involved in some unethical business transactions for which they were dubbed “robber barons.” The great success of these industrialists brought much resentment from working-class people and thus increased social instability, which generated the organization of labor unions and exacerbated anxiety over potential class conflicts. A desire to be free from apprehension over violently progressive society led industrialists to create such philanthropic ventures as founding colleges, medical foundations, hospitals, symphony orchestras, public libraries, museums, and art collections. My paper will demonstrate how a taste of antimodernism to reclaim moral and aesthetic values lost in the midst of rapid industrialization inspired some art patrons to collect the exotic art of remote places such as China, Japan, Korea, Egypt, and the Middle East. By comparing Freer with other collectors of Asian art such as William Sturgis Bigelow (1850–1926), Earnest Francisco Fenollosa (1853–1908), and John D. Rockefeller Jr. (1874–1960), I would like to examine the way in which Asian art was appreciated and understood among intellectuals at the turn of the twentieth century.
Among well‐established Asian art collections, the Freer Gallery in Washington, DC, having opened to the public in 1923, boasts of its long history. The original collection was a bequest of Charles Lang Freer (1854–1919), who ran a railroad‐car factory in Detroit. By analyzing his collection of Asian art objects as well as his friendship with contemporary intellectuals, I would like to discuss the meaning of his collection as well as those of other Asian art enthusiasts in the context of the antimodernism prevalent among the bourgeoisie who profited from the post‐Civil War economic prosperity. Wealthy entrepreneurs who accumulated unprecedented fortunes during the Gilded Age (1870s and 1880s) include John D. Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, John Pierpont Morgan, Henry Walters, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Frick, and Charles Lang Freer, among others. Most of them worked in the railroad industry and became involved in some unethical business transactions for which they were dubbed “robber barons.” The great success of these industrialists brought much resentment from working-class people and thus increased social instability, which generated the organization of labor unions and exacerbated anxiety over potential class conflicts. A desire to be free from apprehension over violently progressive society led industrialists to create such philanthropic ventures as founding colleges, medical foundations, hospitals, symphony orchestras, public libraries, museums, and art collections. My paper will demonstrate how a taste of antimodernism to reclaim moral and aesthetic values lost in the midst of rapid industrialization inspired some art patrons to collect the exotic art of remote places such as China, Japan, Korea, Egypt, and the Middle East. By comparing Freer with other collectors of Asian art such as William Sturgis Bigelow (1850–1926), Earnest Francisco Fenollosa (1853–1908), and John D. Rockefeller Jr. (1874–1960), I would like to examine the way in which Asian art was appreciated and understood among intellectuals at the turn of the twentieth century.
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