Offprints of articles by Sherwood F. Moran compiled by Alexander Coburn Soper, accompanied by photographs, a reproduction, and Soper's introduction typescript, assembled in preparation for an unpublished book of Moran' writing entitled "Studies in Japanese Art Treasures."
Arrangement:
Organized in 3 boxes: 2 boxes contain files from 1977-1992 regarding Artibus Asiae. 1 box houses an introduction to the typescript, Moran's offprints, photos.
Biographical / Historical:
Alexander Coburn Soper was a preeminent professor and historian of Asian art, concentrating primarily on Japanese and Chinese architecture, Chinese art from the Tang through the Northern Sung period, Gandharan Indian art, and Buddhist and secular art of the Six Dynasties period. Published widely, he became the editor of the journal Artisbus Asiae in 1958. Over the course of his life he was active in the American Oriental Society, the Japan Society, and the Association for Asian Studies. He was a professor of Art History at Bryn Mawr and the Institute of Fine Arts in New York.
Sherwood Ford Moran (1885-1983) was a missionary, social worker, Marine, World War II PoW interrogator, and Asian art scholar. He studied Union Theological Seminary in New York and was then enlisted for work initially in India, but rerouted to Japan in 1917, mostly in the area of Osaka, remaining there until the entry of the United States in World War II in 194. During the war, he was an active Marine and a PoW interrogator at Guadacanal. He became extremely interested in Chinese and Japanese Buddhist art, publishing several articles in Artibus Asiae.
Chinese, Korean, and Japanese bronzes : a catalogue of the Auriti collection donated to IsMEO and preserved in the Museo nazionale d'arte orientale in Rome / by Alexander C. Soper
Author:
Istituto italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente Search this
Chinese, Korean, and Japanese sculpture : the Avery Brundage Collection, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco / René-Yvon Lefebvre d'Argencé, editor in charge ; Diana Turner, editor ; with contributions by Fred A. Cline [and others] and Alexander C. Soper
Experiences in painting (Tu hua jian wen zhi) : An eleventh century history of Chinese painting, together with the Chinese text in facsimile / translated and annotated by Alexander Coburn Soper
Papers created by Asian art historian, curator, and collector Dr. James Francis Cahill. Includes personal and professional correspondence and project files documenting his many publications, lectures and activities in the Asian art field. Documents span his early career at the Freer Gallery of Art, where he served as curator of Chinese art from 1957-1965, and his tenure 1965-1994 as Professor of the History of Art at the University of California, Berkeley.
Scope and Content Note:
The James Cahill Papers span the years 1945 to 1996 and measures 15 linear feet. The collection includes: personal and administrative correspondence with other art historians, art dealers and collectors; lecture manuscripts and administrative material and correspondence with art museums, universities and other organizations in the Asian art community. There are also several personal letters and postcards with family friends of James and Dorothy Cahill. The folder descriptions were retained from Cahill's own folder titles and organized alphabetically within each series.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into 2 series:
Series 1 -- Project Files, 1945-1996
Series 2 -- Correspondence with Individuals, 1945-1996
Biographical Note:
1926 -- Born, Fort Bragg, CA
1950 -- Receives BA degree in Oriental Languages from University of California, Berkeley
1952 -- Receives MA degree in Art History from University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor
Circa 1953 -- Holds a museum training fellowship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
1954-1955 -- Studies with Shujiro Shimada at Kyoto University in Japan on a Fulbright Scholarship
1956 -- Works with Osvald Sirén in Stockholm on his seven-volume series "Chinese Painting: Leading Masters and Principles" Joins staff of Freer and Sackler Gallery as Curator of Chinese Art
1958 -- Receives PhD in Art History from University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, working principally with Max Loehr
1960 -- Publishes first and highly influential book: "Chinese Painting." In: Treasures of Asia series, Editions d'Art Albert Skira, Geneva, Switzerland 1960. Published also in French and German editions
1965 -- Leaves the Freer and Sackler Gallery to accept position as Professor of History of Art at the University of California, Berkeley
1973 -- Goes to China as member of the Chinese Archaeological Delegation, first group of art historians to visit China from the US
1976 -- Publishes first of projected five-volume series on later Chinese paintings: "Hills Beyond a River: Chinese Painting of the Yuan Dynasty"
1977 -- Visits China as chairman of Chinese Old Painting Delegation
1978 -- Publishes second of projected five-volume series on later Chinese painting: "Parting At the Shore: Chinese Painting of the Early and Middle Ming Dynasty"
1978-1979 -- Accepts appointment as Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard; delivers series of lectures titled, "The Compelling Image: Nature and Style in 17th Century Chinese Painting"
1982 -- Publishes "Barnhart-Cahill-Rogers Correspondence, 1981" (collection of correspondence published for colleagues) The Harvard lecture series: "The Compelling Image: Nature and Style in 17th Century Chinese Painting" published as a book, receives College of Art Association's Morey Prize for Best Art History book
1998-1999 -- Spends a year at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton with his wife, the art historian and artist Hsingyuan Tsao
2007 -- Former students organize 80th birthday party/symposium at Berkeley, titled: "Returning to the Shore"
2010 -- Became the 12th Recipient of the Charles Lang Freer Medal
Present -- Living in Vancouver, Canada
Related Material:
The James Cahill website, http://www.jamescahill.info/ which contains digitized versions of selected unpublished papers, correspondence and personal reminisces.
Provenance:
Gift of James Cahill.
Restrictions:
Collection is closed for processing. Please contact the Archives for more information.
Rights:
Permission to reproduce and publish an item from the Archives is coordinated through the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery's Rights and Reproductions department. Please contact the Archives in order to initiate this process.
James Cahill papers, 1945-1996. FSA.A2001.11. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of James Cahill, December 12th, 2001.
Identifier:
FSA.A2001.11
Archival Repository:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
Kuo Jo-Hsü's Experiences in painting : (Tu hua jian wen zhi) : an eleventh century history of Chinese painting, together with the Chinese text in facsimile / translated and annotated by Alexander Coburn Soper
Textual evidence for the secular arts of China in the period from Liu Sung through Sui (A.D. 420-618), excluding treatises on painting / Alexander Coburn Soper
