Hamilton Gallery

Huang YongyuSpring 1989 ink and colour on paper Gift of Jason Yeap OAM to mark 50th anniversary of Hamilton Gallery 2011

COLLECTION

CHINESE ART

The Hamilton Gallery Chinese collection tells many stories, from the numinous power of  sacred mountains in Han-dynasty visions of  a world beyond death, to the habits and tastes of  Australian collectors in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

There are currently 329 individual and grouped items in this collection, making it one of  the most substantial accumulations of  Chinese material held by a regional Australian gallery, both in an absolute sense and relative to the total holdings.

The chronological range of  the collection is comparably impressive, extending from prehistory to the work of  established and emerging contemporary artists.

More than half of this material can be dated to the Qing dynasty (1644–1912), China’s last imperial ruling house, and a significant proportion to the reigns of the three most illustrious rulers in this dynasty: the Kangxi (r.1661–1722), Yongzheng (r.1722–35), and Qianlong (r.1735–96) Emperors, encompassing much of  the seventeenth and the whole of  the eighteenth centuries. The Hamilton collection also includes a modest, yet representative, selection of  ceramics that date to the earlier Song dynasty (960–1279). The quality and quantity of  these Song-dynasty wares highlight another defining characteristic of  the Chinese collection: a predominance of  ceramics, comprising almost half  of  the total holdings.

The collection also includes some noteworthy examples of  an earlier phase in the development of  ceramics in China, when earthenware vessels and sculpture were created for burial with the dead. Most significant among these are two ‘hill jars’ created during the Eastern Han dynasty (25–220 CE; and a group of four tomb figurines dated to the Tang dynasty (618–907).

COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS

Uncategorised

Tea bowl (chawan)
7 (h) x 12.5 (d) x 12.5 (dia) stoneware, ‘hare’s fur’ glaze (Jian ware)

Uncategorised

McDonald's M
36.7 x 36.7 x 12.6cm Framed: 45 x 12.6cm porcelain, underglaze cobalt-blue decoration

Uncategorised

Spring
ink and colour on paper
Header Image: Huang Yongyu, ‘Spring’ 1989 ink and colour on paper. Gift of Jason Yeap OAM to mark 50th anniversary of Hamilton Gallery 2011
Spring 1989 ink and colour on paper Gift of Jason Yeap OAM to mark 50th anniversary of Hamilton Gallery 2011