‘Florence and Herbert Irving had two major philanthropic interests,’ says Jonathan Rendell, Deputy Chairman and Head of Sales Curation at Christie’s. ‘The first was for cancer research, and the second was for Asian art.’
According to Rendell, the former received over $1 billion in funding through the New York Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, while the latter culminated in
the Florence and Herbert Irving Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The couple gave the museum over $100 million and more than 1,300 objects, including a very fine selection of lacquer.
In March 2019, the couple’s highly prized collection of Asian
artefacts will come up for sale at Christie’s. ‘It really
is very special,’ Rendell continues. ‘They travelled extensively
and were interested in everything, from the Neolithic to
the new.’
Certainly the Irvings’ curiosity for pan-Asian art was prodigious,
with the artefacts they acquired ranging from Neolithic jades, to rare gilt
bronzes from the Dali Kingdom, to ink paintings by Modern
Chinese artist Fu Baoshi. ‘It is a bit of the best of everything,’
says Rendell.
The story of how this modest couple from Brooklyn became one
of New York’s biggest art donors began in the 1940s, when
Herbert’s academic career was cut short by the war. On his
return from Europe, he set up a tinned food-distribution
company, which eventually became the billion-dollar Sysco
Corporation.
‘It was then, at Florence’s insistence, that they started buying
Asian art,’ Rendell explains. ‘When they were poor and first
married they used to spend all their time in the Brooklyn
Museum of art, where they discovered the Asian galleries.’
A trip to Japan led them to the indomitable art dealer Alice Boney, who had advised President Hoover on his porcelain collection.
‘The first thing they ever bought from her was an ancient Chinese stone pillow,’ says Rendell. ‘It looks absolutely
beautiful but was in fact made for burial rituals.’
‘They put their heart and soul into their collection, and the results are exceptional’ — Christie’s Deputy Chairman Jonathan Rendell
The Irvings met the Metropolitan Museum of Art Director Philippe
de Montebello and the Curator of Asian Art, James Watt, eventually
donating much of their art to the museum. ‘That became their
public collection,’ says Rendell. ‘What we have for sale
at Christie’s is their private collection — the objects they
actually lived with in their apartment overlooking the Met.’
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Rendell’s favourite object in the sale is a large imperial pale greenish-white jade deep ‘washer’ (below), which is inscribed with
a poem by the Emperor Qianlong (estimate: $1,000,000-1,500,000).
‘Chinese Emperors often looked back over history and had
things reproduced in honour of the past, so although the
dish looks like an archaic jade, it was in fact made in the
18th century,’ he explains.
What set the Irvings apart, says Rendell, was their scholarly
approach to collecting. ‘They were not society people, they
were interested in getting to know the experts who could
help them understand the work they loved. They put their
heart and soul into it, and the results are exceptional.’