Professor Nick Pearce

  • Richmond Chair of Fine Arts (History of Art)

telephone: 01413303826
email: Nick.Pearce@glasgow.ac.uk

R201 Level 2, School of Culture &Creative Arts, 8 University Gardens, Glasgow G12 8QH

Import to contacts

ORCID iDhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-2288-2430

Research interests

Research Interests

  • Photography in China, particularly Western photographers and their work in China from the mid-19th to the early 20th century, but also Chinese photographers and how photography was received in China during this period.
  • Collectors and patterns of collecting of Chinese art both in the West and in China, during the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. This includes the growth of both private collectors and institutional collecting and the mechanisms that fuelled these activities.
  • Historiography of Chinese art studies in the West from the late-19th through to the first-half of the 20th century.
  • Scottish Centre for Chinese Research
  • Provenance research in Chinese art

 

Late evening on Mount Huang 

 



Publications

List by: Type | Date

Jump to: 2023 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2005 | 2003 | 2001 | 2000 | 1996 | 1991 | 1987
Number of items: 40.

2023

Pearce, N. (2023) Private passion, public benefit: Brenda Zara Seligman and the Seligman Collection of Chinese Art. In: Lu, L.-e. and Peyton, A. B. (eds.) Women across Asian Art: Selected Essays in Art and Material Culture. Series: David A. Cofrin Asian art manuscript series. University of Florida Press, pp. 155-180. ISBN 9781683403586

2021

Pearce, N. (2021) Beyond the 'Ten Complete Military Victories': Images of battle in the late-Qing period. In: Potter, M. C. (ed.) Representing the Past in the Art of the Long Nineteenth Century: Historicism, Postmodernism and Internationalism. Series: Routledge research in art history. Routledge: New York and London, pp. 164-179. ISBN 9781138544352 (doi: 10.4324/9781351004183-8)

Pearce, N. (2021) "Twice as valuable as that of Eumorphopulos and twice as famous..." (Vita Sackville-West, All Passion Spent, 1931) - The real and imaginary world of the Chinese art collector. Journal for Art Market Studies, 5(1), (doi: 10.23690/jams.v5i1.107)

Pearce, N. (2021) 'I shall set at once about the work': some agents in China. In: Turpin, A. and Bracken, S. (eds.) Art Markets, Agents and Collectors: Collecting Strategies in Europe and the United States, 1550-1950. Series: Contextualizing art markets. Bloomsbury Visual Arts: New York, pp. 241-251. ISBN 9781501348877 (doi: 10.5040/9781501348907.0029)

2020

Hofmann, A., Howald, C. and Pearce, N. (Eds.) (2020) Journal for Art Market Studies [Edited issue]. Forum Kunst und Markt.

Pearce, N. (2020) A Nestorian misadventure: Frits Holm and the Chinese Nestorian Stele. Journal for Art Market Studies, 4(2), pp. 1-15. (doi: 10.23690/jams.v4i2.126)

Pearce, N. (2020) From the Summer Palace 1860: Provenance and Politics. In: Tythacott, L. (ed.) Collecting and Displaying China's “Summer Palace” in the West: The Yuanmingyuan in Britain and France. Series: The histories of material culture and collecting, 1700-1950. Routledge. ISBN 9780367432782

Pearce, N. (2020) New viewpoints, new knowledge: John Dudgeon, John Thomson and photographic practice in nineteenth-century China. In: Studies in Photography: Proceedings of the National Trust for Scotland Symposium: The Camera, Colonialism and Social Networks. Scottish Society for the History of Photography/NTS, pp. 38-49.

2019

Milosch, J. and Pearce, N. (Eds.) (2019) Collecting and Provenance: A Multidisciplinary Approach. Rowman and Littlefield: Lanham, MD. ISBN 9781538127568

2018

Pearce, N. (2018) From the Summer Palace 1860: provenance and politics. In: Tythacott, L. (ed.) Collecting and Displaying China's “Summer Palace” in the West: The Yuanmingyuan in Britain and France. Series: The histories of material culture and collecting, 1700-1950. Routledge, pp. 38-50. ISBN 9781138080553

2017

Pearce, N. (2017) Qianlong’s Western Campaign engravings. In: Knothe, F. (ed.) Imagining Qianlong, Louis XV’s Chinese Emperor Tapestries and Battle Scene Prints at the Imperial court in Beijing. University Museum and Art Gallery, University of Hong Kong, pp. 41-54. ISBN 9789881902498

2015

Hancock, E. G., Pearce, N. and Campbell, M. (Eds.) (2015) William Hunter's World: The Art and Science of Eighteenth-Century Collecting. Series: The histories of material culture and collecting, 1700–1950. Ashgate: Farnham, Surrey. ISBN 9781409447740

Pearce, N. (2015) 'At last in Dr Hunter's library': William Hunter's Chinese collections. In: Pearce, N., Hancock, E. G. and Campbell, M. (eds.) William Hunter's World. The Art and Science of Eighteenth-Century Collecting. Series: The histories of material culture and collecting, 1700-1950. Ashgate, pp. 263-281. ISBN 9781409447740

Pearce, N. (2015) China. In: MacGregor, A. (ed.) The Cobbe Cabinet of Curiosities: An Anglo-Irish Country House Museum. Series: Paul Mellon centre for studies in British art. Yale University Press and the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art: New Haven, pp. 348-373. ISBN 9780300204353

2014

Pearce, N. (2014) From relic to relic: a brief history of the skull of Confucius. Journal of the History of Collections, 26(2), pp. 207-222. (doi: 10.1093/jhc/fht032)

Pearce, N. (2014) 'CARP-ON': Further thoughts on Chinese art provenance research. In: Steuber, J. and Lai, G. (eds.) Collectors, Collections and Collecting the Arts of China: Histories and Challenges. University Press of Florida, pp. 295-312. ISBN 9780813049144

2013

Pearce, N. (2013) A casualty of war: Laurence Binyon, Raphael Petrucci and Chinese painting. In: Sandrock, K. and Wright, O. (eds.) Locating Italy: East and West in British-Italian Transactions. Series: Internationale forschungen zur allgemeinen und vergleichenden literaturwissenschaft. Rodopi: Amsterdam, The Netherlands. ISBN 9789042036352

Han, J., Quye, A. , Chung, Y. and Pearce, N. (2013) Dyes and Dyeing in the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368-1820?) in China: Preliminary Evidence Based on Primary Chinese Sources. In: 32nd Annual meeting of Dyes in History and Archaeology, La Rochelle, France, 2-5 Oct 2013,

Pearce, N. (2013) 'Directness, quaintness and squalor'. Aspects of translation and transformation in Franco Leoni's Opera L'Oracolo. In: Yarrington, A., Villani, S. and Kelly, J. (eds.) Travels and Translations: Anglo-Italian Cultural Transactions. Series: Internationale Forschungen zur Allgemeinen und Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft, 167. Rodopi: Amsterdam, The Netherlands, pp. 337-352. ISBN 9789042037670

2012

Pearce, N. and Steuber, J. (Eds.) (2012) Original Intentions: Essays on Production, Reproduction and Interpretation in the Arts of China. University Press of Florida. ISBN 9780813039725

Pearce, N. (2012) A flash in the pan: the 'Bushell Bowl' controversy revisited. In: Pearce, N. and Steuber, J. (eds.) Original Intentions: Essays on Production, Reproduction and Interpretation in the Arts of China. University Press of Florida: Gainesville, FL, pp. 6-37. ISBN 9780813039725

2011

Pearce, N. (2011) In a perfect world: Jade landscape carvings. Orientations, 42(6), pp. 64-70.

Pearce, N. (2011) A novel experiment: John Thomson's Illustrations of China and its People and the beginnings of photographic publishing. National Palace Museum Bulletin, 44, pp. 49-65.

Pearce, N. (2011) Mapping the world: a copy of Verbiest's Kunyu Quantu in Glasgow University's collection. In: Van Overmeire, D. and Ackerman, P. (eds.) About Books, Maps, Songs and Steles: The Wording and Teaching of the Christian Faith in China. Series: Leuven Chinese studies (21). Ferdinand Verbiest Institute: Leuven, Belgium, pp. 51-78. ISBN 9789081436540

Pearce, N. (2011) Shanghai 1908: A.W. Bahr and China’s first art exhibition. West 86th, 18(1), pp. 2-25. (doi: 10.1086/659382)

2010

Pearce, N. (2010) John Thomson's China: 1868-1872. In: China: Through the Lens of John Thomson, 1868-1872. River Books: Bangkok, pp. 6-9. ISBN 9786167339009

2009

Creasy, H., Metcalf, H. and Pearce, N. (2009) History and conservation of Kunyu Quantu (A map of the whole world) by Ferdinand Verbiest, 1674. In: Colbourne, J. and Snyder, R.F. (eds.) Printed on Paper: The Techniques, History, and Conservation of Printed Media. Arts and Social Sciences Academic Press, Northumbria University: Newcastle, UK, pp. 33-41. ISBN 9780956120632

Pearce, N. (2009) Gorer v Lever: Edgar Gorer and William Hesketh Lever. On-Line Catalogue of the Chinese Works of Art in the Lady Lever Art Gallery,

2008

Pearce, N. (2008) More sight than sound: extra-musical qualities of the Qin. Orientations, 39, pp. 40-46.

Pearce, N. (2008) Chinese export porcelain to europe: some aspects of design and consumption. University of Hong Kong Museum Journal, 2,

2007

Pearce, N. (2007) A life in Peking: the Peabody albums. History of Photography, 31(3), pp. 276-293.

2005

Pearce, N. (2005) Collecting, connoisseurship and commerce: an examination of the life and career of Stephen Wootton Bushell (1844-1908). Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, 70, pp. 17-25.

Pearce, N. (2005) Photographs of Peking, China 1861-1908 : an inventory and description of the Yetts collection at the University of Durham ; Through Peking with a camera. Edwin Mellen Press: Lewiston, NY. ISBN 077346090X

Pearce, N. and Beat, J. (2005) Themes and variations: A discussion of some parallels between Western music and Chinese scroll painting. In: Notis musycall: Essays on Music and Scottish Culture in Honour of Kenneth Elliott. Musica Scotica: Glasgow, pp. 317-330.

2003

Pearce, N. (2003) Images of Guanxiu's Sixteen Luohan in 18th Century China. Apollo, 158(501), pp. 25-31.

2001

Pearce, N. (2001) Soldiers, doctors, engineers: Chinese art and British collecting, 1860-1935. Journal of the Scottish Society for Art History, 6, pp. 45-52.

2000

Pearce, N. (2000) In a Space of Time Past: Victor Segalen’s: ‘The Great Statuary of China’. In: Forsdick, C. and Marsden, S. (eds.) Reading Diversity. University of Glasgow French and German Publications: Glasgow, pp. 67-88. ISBN 0852616597

1996

Pearce, N. and Wilkinson, J. (1996) Harmony and Contrast: A Journey Through East Asian Art. National Museums of Scotland: Edinburgh. ISBN 9780700704613

1991

Pearce, N. (1991) The rise of the Mingei movement. In: Japan Folk Crafts Museum, Mingei - The Living Tradition in Japanese Arts. Kodansha International: Tokyo, pp. 19-24. ISBN 4770015828

1987

Pearce, N. (1987) Ceramics made to special order. In: Clunas, C. (ed.) Chinese Export Art a Design. Victoria & Albert Museum: London, pp. 58-79. ISBN I851770003

This list was generated on Sat Apr 20 00:16:52 2024 BST.
Jump to: Articles | Books | Book Sections | Edited Books | Conference Proceedings
Number of items: 40.

Articles

Pearce, N. (2021) "Twice as valuable as that of Eumorphopulos and twice as famous..." (Vita Sackville-West, All Passion Spent, 1931) - The real and imaginary world of the Chinese art collector. Journal for Art Market Studies, 5(1), (doi: 10.23690/jams.v5i1.107)

Pearce, N. (2020) A Nestorian misadventure: Frits Holm and the Chinese Nestorian Stele. Journal for Art Market Studies, 4(2), pp. 1-15. (doi: 10.23690/jams.v4i2.126)

Pearce, N. (2014) From relic to relic: a brief history of the skull of Confucius. Journal of the History of Collections, 26(2), pp. 207-222. (doi: 10.1093/jhc/fht032)

Pearce, N. (2011) In a perfect world: Jade landscape carvings. Orientations, 42(6), pp. 64-70.

Pearce, N. (2011) A novel experiment: John Thomson's Illustrations of China and its People and the beginnings of photographic publishing. National Palace Museum Bulletin, 44, pp. 49-65.

Pearce, N. (2011) Shanghai 1908: A.W. Bahr and China’s first art exhibition. West 86th, 18(1), pp. 2-25. (doi: 10.1086/659382)

Pearce, N. (2009) Gorer v Lever: Edgar Gorer and William Hesketh Lever. On-Line Catalogue of the Chinese Works of Art in the Lady Lever Art Gallery,

Pearce, N. (2008) More sight than sound: extra-musical qualities of the Qin. Orientations, 39, pp. 40-46.

Pearce, N. (2008) Chinese export porcelain to europe: some aspects of design and consumption. University of Hong Kong Museum Journal, 2,

Pearce, N. (2007) A life in Peking: the Peabody albums. History of Photography, 31(3), pp. 276-293.

Pearce, N. (2005) Collecting, connoisseurship and commerce: an examination of the life and career of Stephen Wootton Bushell (1844-1908). Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, 70, pp. 17-25.

Pearce, N. (2003) Images of Guanxiu's Sixteen Luohan in 18th Century China. Apollo, 158(501), pp. 25-31.

Pearce, N. (2001) Soldiers, doctors, engineers: Chinese art and British collecting, 1860-1935. Journal of the Scottish Society for Art History, 6, pp. 45-52.

Books

Pearce, N. (2005) Photographs of Peking, China 1861-1908 : an inventory and description of the Yetts collection at the University of Durham ; Through Peking with a camera. Edwin Mellen Press: Lewiston, NY. ISBN 077346090X

Pearce, N. and Wilkinson, J. (1996) Harmony and Contrast: A Journey Through East Asian Art. National Museums of Scotland: Edinburgh. ISBN 9780700704613

Book Sections

Pearce, N. (2023) Private passion, public benefit: Brenda Zara Seligman and the Seligman Collection of Chinese Art. In: Lu, L.-e. and Peyton, A. B. (eds.) Women across Asian Art: Selected Essays in Art and Material Culture. Series: David A. Cofrin Asian art manuscript series. University of Florida Press, pp. 155-180. ISBN 9781683403586

Pearce, N. (2021) Beyond the 'Ten Complete Military Victories': Images of battle in the late-Qing period. In: Potter, M. C. (ed.) Representing the Past in the Art of the Long Nineteenth Century: Historicism, Postmodernism and Internationalism. Series: Routledge research in art history. Routledge: New York and London, pp. 164-179. ISBN 9781138544352 (doi: 10.4324/9781351004183-8)

Pearce, N. (2021) 'I shall set at once about the work': some agents in China. In: Turpin, A. and Bracken, S. (eds.) Art Markets, Agents and Collectors: Collecting Strategies in Europe and the United States, 1550-1950. Series: Contextualizing art markets. Bloomsbury Visual Arts: New York, pp. 241-251. ISBN 9781501348877 (doi: 10.5040/9781501348907.0029)

Pearce, N. (2020) From the Summer Palace 1860: Provenance and Politics. In: Tythacott, L. (ed.) Collecting and Displaying China's “Summer Palace” in the West: The Yuanmingyuan in Britain and France. Series: The histories of material culture and collecting, 1700-1950. Routledge. ISBN 9780367432782

Pearce, N. (2020) New viewpoints, new knowledge: John Dudgeon, John Thomson and photographic practice in nineteenth-century China. In: Studies in Photography: Proceedings of the National Trust for Scotland Symposium: The Camera, Colonialism and Social Networks. Scottish Society for the History of Photography/NTS, pp. 38-49.

Pearce, N. (2018) From the Summer Palace 1860: provenance and politics. In: Tythacott, L. (ed.) Collecting and Displaying China's “Summer Palace” in the West: The Yuanmingyuan in Britain and France. Series: The histories of material culture and collecting, 1700-1950. Routledge, pp. 38-50. ISBN 9781138080553

Pearce, N. (2017) Qianlong’s Western Campaign engravings. In: Knothe, F. (ed.) Imagining Qianlong, Louis XV’s Chinese Emperor Tapestries and Battle Scene Prints at the Imperial court in Beijing. University Museum and Art Gallery, University of Hong Kong, pp. 41-54. ISBN 9789881902498

Pearce, N. (2015) 'At last in Dr Hunter's library': William Hunter's Chinese collections. In: Pearce, N., Hancock, E. G. and Campbell, M. (eds.) William Hunter's World. The Art and Science of Eighteenth-Century Collecting. Series: The histories of material culture and collecting, 1700-1950. Ashgate, pp. 263-281. ISBN 9781409447740

Pearce, N. (2015) China. In: MacGregor, A. (ed.) The Cobbe Cabinet of Curiosities: An Anglo-Irish Country House Museum. Series: Paul Mellon centre for studies in British art. Yale University Press and the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art: New Haven, pp. 348-373. ISBN 9780300204353

Pearce, N. (2014) 'CARP-ON': Further thoughts on Chinese art provenance research. In: Steuber, J. and Lai, G. (eds.) Collectors, Collections and Collecting the Arts of China: Histories and Challenges. University Press of Florida, pp. 295-312. ISBN 9780813049144

Pearce, N. (2013) A casualty of war: Laurence Binyon, Raphael Petrucci and Chinese painting. In: Sandrock, K. and Wright, O. (eds.) Locating Italy: East and West in British-Italian Transactions. Series: Internationale forschungen zur allgemeinen und vergleichenden literaturwissenschaft. Rodopi: Amsterdam, The Netherlands. ISBN 9789042036352

Pearce, N. (2013) 'Directness, quaintness and squalor'. Aspects of translation and transformation in Franco Leoni's Opera L'Oracolo. In: Yarrington, A., Villani, S. and Kelly, J. (eds.) Travels and Translations: Anglo-Italian Cultural Transactions. Series: Internationale Forschungen zur Allgemeinen und Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft, 167. Rodopi: Amsterdam, The Netherlands, pp. 337-352. ISBN 9789042037670

Pearce, N. (2012) A flash in the pan: the 'Bushell Bowl' controversy revisited. In: Pearce, N. and Steuber, J. (eds.) Original Intentions: Essays on Production, Reproduction and Interpretation in the Arts of China. University Press of Florida: Gainesville, FL, pp. 6-37. ISBN 9780813039725

Pearce, N. (2011) Mapping the world: a copy of Verbiest's Kunyu Quantu in Glasgow University's collection. In: Van Overmeire, D. and Ackerman, P. (eds.) About Books, Maps, Songs and Steles: The Wording and Teaching of the Christian Faith in China. Series: Leuven Chinese studies (21). Ferdinand Verbiest Institute: Leuven, Belgium, pp. 51-78. ISBN 9789081436540

Pearce, N. (2010) John Thomson's China: 1868-1872. In: China: Through the Lens of John Thomson, 1868-1872. River Books: Bangkok, pp. 6-9. ISBN 9786167339009

Creasy, H., Metcalf, H. and Pearce, N. (2009) History and conservation of Kunyu Quantu (A map of the whole world) by Ferdinand Verbiest, 1674. In: Colbourne, J. and Snyder, R.F. (eds.) Printed on Paper: The Techniques, History, and Conservation of Printed Media. Arts and Social Sciences Academic Press, Northumbria University: Newcastle, UK, pp. 33-41. ISBN 9780956120632

Pearce, N. and Beat, J. (2005) Themes and variations: A discussion of some parallels between Western music and Chinese scroll painting. In: Notis musycall: Essays on Music and Scottish Culture in Honour of Kenneth Elliott. Musica Scotica: Glasgow, pp. 317-330.

Pearce, N. (2000) In a Space of Time Past: Victor Segalen’s: ‘The Great Statuary of China’. In: Forsdick, C. and Marsden, S. (eds.) Reading Diversity. University of Glasgow French and German Publications: Glasgow, pp. 67-88. ISBN 0852616597

Pearce, N. (1991) The rise of the Mingei movement. In: Japan Folk Crafts Museum, Mingei - The Living Tradition in Japanese Arts. Kodansha International: Tokyo, pp. 19-24. ISBN 4770015828

Pearce, N. (1987) Ceramics made to special order. In: Clunas, C. (ed.) Chinese Export Art a Design. Victoria & Albert Museum: London, pp. 58-79. ISBN I851770003

Edited Books

Hofmann, A., Howald, C. and Pearce, N. (Eds.) (2020) Journal for Art Market Studies [Edited issue]. Forum Kunst und Markt.

Milosch, J. and Pearce, N. (Eds.) (2019) Collecting and Provenance: A Multidisciplinary Approach. Rowman and Littlefield: Lanham, MD. ISBN 9781538127568

Hancock, E. G., Pearce, N. and Campbell, M. (Eds.) (2015) William Hunter's World: The Art and Science of Eighteenth-Century Collecting. Series: The histories of material culture and collecting, 1700–1950. Ashgate: Farnham, Surrey. ISBN 9781409447740

Pearce, N. and Steuber, J. (Eds.) (2012) Original Intentions: Essays on Production, Reproduction and Interpretation in the Arts of China. University Press of Florida. ISBN 9780813039725

Conference Proceedings

Han, J., Quye, A. , Chung, Y. and Pearce, N. (2013) Dyes and Dyeing in the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368-1820?) in China: Preliminary Evidence Based on Primary Chinese Sources. In: 32nd Annual meeting of Dyes in History and Archaeology, La Rochelle, France, 2-5 Oct 2013,

This list was generated on Sat Apr 20 00:16:52 2024 BST.

Grants

Asian Art Web-based Provenance project with the Freer-Sackler Galleries, Washington DC (Berg Foundation Grant), 2015-16.

Co-investigator: Evaluating Methods of Aesthetic Enquiry Across Disciplines’ Leverhulme Network (PI: University of Manchester) 2015-18.

Catalogue of the Chinese Collections in the Lady Lever Art Gallery

Funded by the Leverhulme Trust. Worked together with Dr Yupin Chung and staff of the National Museums Liverpool over a 3-year project to create an electronic catalogue of the Collection, made available to the public as a web-based resource in 2009.

Chinese Art Research into Provenance

A Provenance Database for Chinese Works of Art at The Burrell Collection. An AHRC-funded project, 2004.

Supervision

I welcome applications from PhD students in the areas of photography in China, collectors, collecting and collections of Chinese works of art and the historiography of Chinese art studies in the West.

  • Fraser, Tullia Catriona
    Shaping Taste, Building Knowledge: Collecting China in Scotland in the Early Twentieth Century
  • Green, Carol
    Collecting Modern Art in the Nazi Germany: An Examination of the Collection of Kurt Feldhäusser 1930-1950
  • Wu, Wu
    Global Transformation and Regional Reception: Collecting Practice of Mounted Chinese Porcelain in 19th-Century Britain

Teaching

  • MSc Collecting and Provenance Studies in an International Context.
  • Junior Honours: Images of China.

Additional information

Affiliation

  • Visiting Professor on the Masters Program in the History of the Decorative Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015

Administration

  • University Senate
  • Christie’s Education Joint Board
  • Hunterian Strategy and Advisory Boards
  • Kelvinhall Project Board
  • Confucius Institute and Scottish Centre for China Research Advisory Board
  • Academic Council, Glasgow School of Art

External Responsibilities

  • Board of Trustees, National Galleries of Scotland (2014 - )
  • Board of Trustees, the Sir William Burrell Trust (2014 - )
  • Board of Trustees, the Textile Conservation Foundation (2012 - )
  • Fellow, Smithsonian Provenance Research Initiative, Smithsonian Institution
  • Advisory Committee for Research on European Paintings, National Gallery London
  • Major Capital Projects Strategic Board, National Galleries of Scotland

A photograph of a distinguished-looking Professor Pearce