Borrowed Landscapes

Emile de Bruijn studied Japanese at the University of Leiden, the Netherlands, and museology at the University of Essex, United Kingdom. After working for the auctioneers Sotheby's he joined the National Trust, where he currently works as a decorative arts curator. Among his previous publications is Chinese Wallpaper in Britain and Ireland (Philip Wilson Publishers, 2017).

A beautifully illustrated exploration of the impact of Chinese and Japanese material culture on the historic houses and gardens of Britain and Ireland.The art and ornament of China and Japan have had a deep impact in the British Isles. From the seventeenth century onwards, the design and decoration of interiors and gardens in Britain and Ireland was profoundly influenced by the importation of Chinese and Japanese luxury goods, while domestic designers and artisans created their own fanciful interpretations of 'oriental' art. Those hybrid styles and tastes have traditionally been known as chinoiserie and japonisme, but they can also be seen as elements of the wider and still very relevant phenomenon of orientalism, or the way the West sees the East.Illustrated with a wealth of new photography and published in association with the National Trust, Borrowed Landscapes is an engaging survey of orientalism in the Trust's historic houses and gardens across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Drawing on new research, Emile de Bruijn demonstrates how elements of Chinese and Japanese culture were simultaneously desired and misunderstood, dismembered and treasured, idealised and caricatured.

Emile de Bruijn worked in the Japanese and Chinese departments of Sotheby's in London before joining the National Trust. He is the author of Chinese Wallpaper in Britain and Ireland (2017) and is researching the material culture of orientalism.

AcknowledgementsIntroduction1. A Pattern Emerges 1600-16902. Emblems of Aspiration 1690-17353. Peak Chinoiserie 1735-17604. Fictions Have Their Own Logic 1760-17805. Competing Perspectives 1780-18706. The Age of Japonisme 1870-19007. New and Old Orientalisms The 20th CenturyPicture creditsNotesBibliographyIndex