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Obsession: Sir William Van Horne's Japanese Ceramics

Friends Day: Obsession

Sat October 20, 2018 10:00AM - 5:00PM

Gardiner Friends are invited to bring their friends and guests for a full day of free admission to the exhibition  Obsession: Sir William Van Horne’s Japanese Ceramics. As a Gardiner Friend, you can bring unlimited guests free of charge on this day!

Not a Gardiner Friend? Click here to learn more about the benefits of joining.

About the Exhibition

The second half of the 19th century was a golden age of collecting in Europe and North America. The epicenter in Canada was Montreal, then the country’s economic powerhouse. In a period of colonial expansion, its business leaders collected and displayed European and Asian art to convey their emerging power and status. Sir William Van Horne (1843-1915), the American-born builder of the Canadian Pacific Railway, was one such collector.

Obsession: Sir William Van Horne’s Japanese Ceramics reunites for the first time what survives of Van Horne’s collection, alongside his exacting watercolors, elaborately annotated notebooks, letters, and related archival material. Together, these artifacts offer a remarkable case study in the history of collecting. Learn more

Header image: Tea bowl with design of baton, Kyoto ware, Kyoto, False seal of “Ninsei”, Edo-Meiji period, 19c., Stoneware, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts 1944.Ee.6, Adaline Van Horne Bequest