Prized Asian art from the home of Florence and Herbert Irving

Every morning at five o’clock, the entrepreneur and philanthropist Herbert Irving awoke to ‘commune’ with his art. The Fifth Avenue apartment that he and and his wife Florence had transformed into a spectacular gallery housed art from all of the major cultures of East and South Asia, spanning ancient to contemporary, and with a focus on the four materials in particular: lacquer, jade, bronze and ink. ‘We don't have a house, we have a warehouse,’ Herbert once said. ‘If I have it, I want to see it.’ 

In March 2019 a special evening sale of works from their collection was a highlight of Asian Art Week in New York and realised $17,894,750. ‘It has been an honour to present The Private Collection of Florence and Herbert Irving, a grouping recognised for its remarkable quality and beauty,’ said Jonathan Rendell, Deputy Chairman and Head of Sales Curation at Christie’s, afterwards.

‘The works offered in the evening sale presented a cross-section of 26 of the best examples from the Irvings’ most collected categories: lacquer, jade, bronze, and ink. The exceptional results achieved reinforce the importance of provenance and offer a tangible tribute to the exquisite eye, thoughtful connoisseurship, and meaningful impact made by these celebrated collectors.’ 

This September additional works from their collection are offered as part of Asian Art Week 2020, including more objects made from lacquer, jade and bronze, as well as an ink painting by Lin Fengmian. 

Herbert and Florence were born in Brooklyn, in 1917 and 1920 respectively. They both had modest upbringings and developed a keen interest in art, culture and history, with the galleries of the Brooklyn Museum becoming like a second home. They married in 1941 and after returning from active service in the Second World War, Herbert went on to found a hugely successful frozen foods distribution company.

In the autumn of 1967, the Irvings embarked on a life-changing trip to Japan during which they met the celebrated Asian art dealer Alice Boney. ‘She was like a mother,’ Florence Irving recalled. ‘She really introduced us to Oriental art.’ Boney sold the Irvings their first substantive Asian work of art — a Chinese jade pillow — and the couple subsequently asked her to help them grow their collection. 

As their knowledge and collection expanded, the Irvings extended their network, forging relationships with the world's foremost Asian art scholars. ‘We don't collect artefacts, we collect people,’ Herbert would say of the academics he came to call his friends. Florence also enrolled at Columbia University where she studied Chinese art, ceramics and furniture, and began attending lectures at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  

Florence and Herbert Irving had an unwavering faith in the civic power of art, and a conviction that it should be shared with the public. In the 1980s they began to donate works of art to the Metropolitan Museum, which they could see from their apartment window. For the next 30 years the Irvings were extraordinarily generous benefactors to the museum, donating more than 1,300 objects and over $100 million. 

‘In every collector there is a wish to own and a wish to share that are not necessarily incompatible,’ Florence Irving once said. ‘We wanted to share our collection with the greatest number of people, and for that, there’s no place like the Met.’ The museum recognised this support by unveiling the Florence and Herbert Irving Asian Wing in 2004. 

Regarded as one of New York City’s most generous philanthropists, Herbert Irving passed away in 2016, followed by Florence two years later. Below are some of the sold and upcoming highlights from the collection. 

The tradition of lacquerware — a supremely labour-intensive and time-consuming process married to exquisite craftsmanship — is shared by the major cultures of China, Korea and Japan. 

In China, two main decorative traditions came to dominate. The first involved carving through thick layers of lacquer to create a three-dimensional and luxurious effect, as illustrated by the sumptuous 16th-century mallet-form vase, decorated with overlapping peony blossoms, pictured above left, and the 16th-17th century brush pot, above right.

The other consisted of painted, gilded or inlaid mother-of-pearl surface decoration.

Jade

The reverence for jade in Chinese culture reaches back thousands of years to the Neolithic Period, with jade carvings from the period revealing a high degree of skill and artistry. The mineral came to be associated with human virtue. Confucius is said to have remarked, ‘Anciently superior men found the likeness of all excellent qualities in jade.’

The Irvings’ collection of jade spans 5,000 years of history. The jade or hardstone cong, above right, is a mysterious object carved by the people of the ancient Liangzhu culture in the third millennium BC. While its purpose remains unknown, the presence of such artefacts in burials hints at a ritual or religious function. 

Bronze

While Asian cultures have produced a range of bronze-working traditions as diverse as the continent itself, one of the most universal applications of the material was in the creation of bronze Buddhist sculptures. 

Bronze had the advantage of being durable and portable — small bronze statues of Buddha were disseminated across Asia by wandering monks, pilgrims and merchants. Hollow-cast bronze figures could also be sealed with sacred relics and scriptures.

Ink

In East Asian art, ink is regarded as both a profoundly simple and a sublimely expressive material. Its use dates back to Neolithic times, when a combination of pine soot, glue and water is known to have been painted on the sides of earthenware bowls used in burials. 

The masters of China’s ink-painting tradition were scholar-officials. Their compositions reflected their emotions and character — hills and rivers painted with dark tones and short, staccato brushstrokes suggested an energetic and outgoing man; pale washes and long, string-like strokes indicated a quiet and contemplative spirit.

Led by masters such as China’s Wu Guanzhong — whose Waterfall  was among the works offered on 20 March 2019 — East Asian artists of the past century have pushed the tradition of ink painting in new directions. 

Lin Fengmian was a 20th-century ink painting master. In 1928 he co-founded China’s National Academy of Art in Hangzhou, which nurtured Wu amongst others. 

Lin had studied painting in France and Germany where the oeuvres of Expressionists such as Emil Nolde (1867-1956) and Erich Heckel (1883-1970) deeply influenced his artistic direction. His journey in Europe was a critical factor in shaping his vision of what 20th century Chinese ink painting could be.