The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Cleveland Museum of Art have announced a significant joint acquisition of over 100 18th-century Suzhou prints for each institution. This landmark acquisition enriches both museums’ collections of Chinese art, offering new avenues for scholarship on Chinese printmaking and highlighting the global interconnectedness of visual culture in the early modern period.
A Transformative Acquisition
The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Cleveland Museum of Art have jointly acquired a substantial collection of exceptional 18th-century Chinese color prints from Suzhou. This acquisition, comprising over 100 prints for each institution, significantly complements their existing collections of Chinese paintings and opens new frontiers for the study of Chinese printmaking. The prints, largely produced in Suzhou, were previously part of Christer von der Burg‘s comprehensive private collection, positioning both museums among the world’s leading centers for Suzhou print research.
Bridging Cultures Through Art
These vibrant Suzhou prints are notable for their fusion of imagery from China’s elite painting traditions and vernacular art with techniques borrowed from European engravings. This blend reflects an ongoing dialogue between different peoples and societies, offering a unique lens through which to understand the cosmopolitan nature of Chinese visual culture. The acquisition allows for a deeper appreciation of China’s pioneering role in woodblock printing, dating back to the 700s, and its advancements in color printing centuries before its widespread adoption in Japan and Europe.
Collaborative Curation and Future Exhibitions
Curators from both The Met and the CMA collaborated closely to divide the collection equitably, ensuring comprehensive representation of various types and styles while preserving coherent sets of prints. Clarissa von Spee, the CMA’s James and Donna Reid Curator of Chinese Art, highlighted the acquisition’s transformative impact, enabling the museum to showcase China’s early innovations in printing. Joseph Scheier-Dolberg, Oscar Tang and Agnes Hsu-Tang Curator of Chinese Paintings at The Met, emphasized how Suzhou prints serve as vivid evidence of an interconnected past, drawing on both local and imported visual traditions.
The prints depict a wide array of subjects, including birds and flowers, antiquities, architectural designs, gardens, historic sites, and depictions of elite women. These works, often imitating paintings, offer fresh insights into narrative and architectural details, enriching the understanding of the museums’ existing Chinese painting collections. Select prints from this acquisition will be featured at the CMA in winter 2026 and at The Met in the fall of 2025 as part of the exhibition “Chinese Painting and Calligraphy: Selections from the Collection.”
About the Collection
The majority of the prints date from the 18th century and are notable for their large scale, often measuring around 40 x 20 inches. Many are polychrome, achieved through China’s pioneering multicolor woodblock printing processes or through hand-coloring after initial impressions. The collection features diverse subjects and genres, including architectural views, cityscapes, elite women, birds and flowers, and New Year’s prints. A remarkable aspect of these prints is their incorporation of European visual conventions, such as linear perspective and hatching, demonstrating a more globally interconnected Chinese visual culture than previously understood.