Expert Eye: a Lectures Series with Book Signings

For more than a century China was almost entirely closed to Westerners. Only in one place were they allowed to live and trade: a small strip of riverside land in Canton, on which stood their 'hongs' or 'factories'. Here the European and American merchants lived, worked, shopped, smuggled, made fortunes - and sometimes lost them. Mr. Conner's lecture will focus on the Chinese 'export' paintings, produced in Canton specifically for visitors from the West. These pictures illustrate the development of the 'hongs' and the activities of their inmates - increasingly splendid buildings and gardens, regattas and river forts, devastating fires, and trials of unruly seamen.

Patrick Conner has been Director of the Martyn Gregory Gallery, London, specialists in historical paintings related to the China Trade since 1986. Dr. Conner has contributed regularly to The Magazine Antiques, Arts of Asia and other periodicals. His published books include Oriental Architecture in the West, and George Chinnery, artist of India and the China coast. He has curated a number of loan exhibitions exploring the relationships between 'Eastern' and 'Western' cultures. He is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, and has held fellowships from the Leverhulme Foundation and the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven.

Private collections that eventually become world class, permanent cultural institutions all have two factors in common: a vision and a practical approach to acquiring the artifacts. The thread that ties a collection together may gradually become apparent as the collection is formed. The practical means may not be an issue if there are many dealers and auction houses in the field, but can be very limiting if the lynch pins of the collection cannot be acquired. Mr. Rendell will discuss these issues, tracing a collection that started as a kid buying war surplus in the 1940s to what is now described as the most important World War II museum in the world.

Kenneth W. Rendell has been a dealer since 1959 in historical letters and documents, from the Renaissance to the present time. He authored the standard reference books in the field, including History Comes to Life. He is also Director of the Museum of World War II and author of World War II: Saving the Reality. The field of forgeries and journalistic hoaxes is another major interest and he is author of Forging History. Another major interest is Western American history and his extensive collection in this field was the basis of his book The Western Pursuit of the American Dream.

Alan Granby and Janice Hyland will speak on their recently published book, Flying the Colors: Unseen Treasures of Nineteenth Century American Marine Art. The expanses of sea and shore have long been an integral part of the American vision, beginning with the experiences of European colonists crossing the vast stretches of ocean to reach the horizons of the New World. In their publication, Mr. Granby and Ms. Hyland lavish their primary concentration in this American story on the robust decades of the nineteenth century, when our waters were the constant setting for commerce, pleasure, and the embodiment of national purpose.

Alan Granby and Janice Hyland founded Hyland Granby Antiques in 1976 in Hyannis, Massachusetts, which specializes in buying and selling eighteenth- and nineteenth-century maritime artifacts. They also exhibit at many antiques shows. Alan Granby produced the book A Yachtsman's Eye: The Glen S. Foster Collection of Marine Paintings, and has lectured about the Foster Collection, focusing on the history of maritime art of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries with an emphasis on American and English yachting. In 2005 Alan Granby and Janice Hyland worked with Bill Koch on the maritime chapter for the book Things I Love: The Many Collections of William I. Koch. In 2006 Maritime Maverick: The Collection of William I. Koch, a book illustrating and describing Mr. Koch's maritime collection, was completed under the direction of Alan Granby and Janice Hyland. Janice Hyland received her B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Boston University. Alan Granby received his bachelor's degree from Clark University and his M.A. and Ph.D. at Boston University.

Carrie Rebora Barratt and Lori Zabar have just written the first complete catalogue of the Museum’s collection of American portrait miniatures. Barratt and Zabar will discuss the world’s most comprehensive holdings of these tiny miracles of the painter’s art, nearly six hundred portraits ranging in date from the mid-18th century through the mid-20th century. The authors will present the history of the collection, highlight stars of the Museum’s magnificent holdings, and explore recent investigations into the stylistic development of the casework that protects and enhances these exquisite artistic expressions.

Carrie Rebora Barratt is Associate Director for Collections and Administration at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Previously, she was a Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture and Manager of The Henry R. Luce Center for the Study of American Art. She is the co-author of American Portrait Miniatures in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ms. Barratt joined the Metropolitan in 1984 and has held a number of positions in The American Wing. She has organized or co-organized a number of major exhibitions at the Metropolitan. Most recently, she is a co-organizer of American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765–1915.

Lori Zabar is an independent scholar. She participated in the preparation of several Metropolitan Museum exhibitions and accompanying catalogues, and she researched and co-authored American Portrait Miniatures in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ms. Zabar has held a number of posts, including directing the New York City Historic Properties Fund and managing the City Ventures Fund for the New York Landmarks Conservancy, co-owning the gallery Kurland•Zabar, and she was part of a team that advised on the restoration and development of the Seventh Regiment Armory.