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Art Collection Highlights - Chinese Paintings

About this Collection

Of the approximately 150 Chinese paintings in this collection guide, the majority were originally collected by UC Berkeley Professor Emeritus James Cahill and the Cahill family. The Cahill family collections, known historically as the Ching Yüan Chai Collection, are arguably among the finest in the western United States, representing virtually every period of Chinese painting over the last 900 years. The collections consist of works from the Sung, Yüan, Ming, and Ch'ing dynasties, including major figure paintings and bird-and-flower paintings. The greatest strength, however, is landscape paintings. Considered the highest category of painting in China, the landscape embodies the ideals of the Confucian scholar. This is the area of Chinese art in which we find the most daring experiments, the greatest developments, and the most intense art historical scrutiny.... View collection guide.

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