MMFA 2019: Van Horn's Japanese Ceramics

OBSESSION:

SIR WILLIAM VAN HORNE’S JAPANESE CERAMICS

November 20, 2019 – March 1, 2020 

Sir William Van Horne was a man of many achievements. As the president of the Canadian Pacific, he build Canada’s transcontinental railway. As a private man, he was an avid collector of Japanese ceramics which was made for the Japanese domestic market. Though he never visited Japan during his lifetime, the crates with the ceramics he purchased while in Canada were shiped to him by boats over the Pacific ocean.

He lived at 1139 Sherbrooke Street West in Montreal, just steps from the Museum. Between 1883 and 1893, he acquired close to 1,200 examples of Japanese ceramics. His collection was world renowned during his lifetime. It is exceptional not only for the number of objects it consists of, but most remarquably for the compulsive diligence with which he documented it. He knew every item in his collection by heart, and had an individual relationship with each item. Absolutely every item was catalogued in a series of notebooks, some on of them on view at the exhibition. In addition, Van Horn carefully illustrated his ceramic pieces, in some cases rendered them in large watercolour paintings. The MMFA exhibition includes several of these “case studies,” where an object, its description, sketch and watercolour are displayed side by side.

Van Horn lived at an era of private collectors, who knew each other, belonged to the same social circles, visited each other's collections, and staged private exhibitions at their homes. The collection of artistic objects activity was highly regarded and praised by Van Horn's peers.

Sir William Van Horne

William Cornelius Van Horne was born in 1843 in Illinois. At a very young age, he developed an interest in paleontology and fossil classification. Leaving school at age 13, he found a job with the Illinois Central Railway and then with the Chicago & Alton Railway, where he became superintendent general at the age of 29. He subsequently became president of the Southern Minnesota Railroad, where in his first year he successfully turned around the financially troubled company with his innovations.

In 1881, the Canadian Pacific Railway faced a daunting challenge: a dream of connecting the West Coast of the country with the East Coast by building a railroad within 10 years. To do so, the company called upon Van Horne’s talents. His assignment was to lay 4,665 kilometres of rail across a continent that had scarcely even been surveyed. He rose to the challenge in 1885, despite a host of obstacles, and spent 11 years as president of Canadian Pacific. Under his auspices, the company was restored to financial health and would become the world’s largest transportation system. He left this position to launch a railway in Cuba. His success and his involvement with the boards of directors of some 40 Canadian companies and organizations – including the Art Association of Montreal, the forerunner to the MMFA – made him one of the country’s most influential businessmen. When he died in 1915, he was a Canadian citizen, British knight, and a multimillionaire.

In 1944, Van Horne’s daughter donated a group of 595 works to the Art Association of Montreal, including paintings by Canaletto, Cézanne, Daumier, Greco, Guardi, Monet and Tiepolo, along with 217 Japanese ceramics. This was the beginning of the MMFA’S collection of Asian art. During his lifetime, Van Horne also gave 150 other ceramic objects from his collection to the ROM. 

  

Exibition Location

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
Liliane and David M. Stewart Pavilion – Level 2

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For more information about the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts exhibitions and activities, visit the museum's website.