The first time Gulbenkian described himself as a collector was in the chapter on oriental carpets in his book on the early petroleum industry, La Transcaucasie et la péninsule d’Apchéron: Souvenirs de voyage ( Transcaucasia and the Apcheron Peninsula: Travel Memories), published in 1891. 3), came from Chinese art, demonstrating a constant interest on his part to explore and identify connections between regions and objects. New research on his Chinese collection offers a more nuanced picture, revealing for the first time that while his acquisitions of Chinese ceramics mirrored trends in his Islamic pottery purchases, the impetus to buy one of his most famous Islamic objects, a jade jug (Fig. This summary reflects in-depth research conducted for the exhibition ‘The Rise of Islamic Art, 1969–1939’, held in 2019 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Calouste Gulbenkian’s birth. It is organized chronologically, emphasizing moments that intersected with changing economic and political circumstances to highlight Gulbenkian’s personal connections, learning, and taste. This brief essay sketches the major historical trends in the evolution of Calouste Gulbenkian’s collection.

His selection was influenced by what was available on the market and brought to his attention, with only purchases of Islamic arts of the book showing signs of direct intervention by others.

Gulbenkian’s Ottoman cultural background instilled confidence in his choice of arts from the Islamic world and China, and, in contrast with the European side of his collection, he very rarely relied on the expertise of dealers, scholars, or auctioneers in making his choices. His art from the ‘Far East’, by contrast, is less plentiful (about 400 objects) and more focused in time and space, namely, Ming and Qing porcelains (with one important exception) and Chinese hardstones that closely relate with his Islamic purchases as we shall see, as well as Japanese lacquer, inros, and prints. The portion described as coming from the ‘Islamic East’ comprises around 750 items (about 1,200 individual objects), mainly ceramics and tiles from the 12th to 19th centuries as well as enamelled glass, carpets, textiles, and manuscripts and bindings. Thus, the bulk of his ‘oriental’ collection was formed in Britain and France. And although he did tour Egypt, Palestine, and Syria on an excursion in 1934, he made no significant acquisitions on this trip. In 1919 he was appointed financial adviser to the Persian Embassy in London, but he did not travel to Iran either. Even though he was instrumental in the creation of the Turkish Petroleum Company, he never returned to Istanbul or visited oil-rich Mosul or Iraq.

In 1892 he opened an office in London, and from 1896/7 onwards lived permanently outside Ottoman lands: first in Britain, and then after 1918 in France, shifting to Portugal in 1942. At the age of 14 he was sent to Europe for three years to study at the École de commerce in Marseille and King’s College in London. Calouste’s own life journey took him decisively westwards. His father traced his origins to the ancient town of Talas in Kayseri province (formerly the Silk Road city of Caesarea), while his mother’s family is said to have had Persian ancestry. His life, business, and collecting occurred against a dramatically changing geopolitical landscape that witnessed the end of the Ottoman Empire, colonialism, and two world wars.Ĭalouste Gulbenkian was born into an Armenian Orthodox Christian family (Fig. Gulbenkian’s formidable negotiation of a multinational consortium to exploit the petroleum-rich region of Iraq between 19 earned him a lucrative share, and when the price of oil tripled, he became the world’s richest man. A long and lucrative career in the petroleum industry provided the financial means to invest in art, as his fortune paralleled the seismic shift that occurred with the transformation of oil as a source of kerosene, used for lighting, to a source of gasoline. Today, they are housed in the Lisbon museum that bears his name (Fig. By the time of his death in Lisbon in 1955, at age 86, this vision was reflected in a splendid art collection comprising some 6,000 objects originating from England to Japan, and dating from antiquity to the early 20th century. His cultural view was expansive, extending beyond the Ottoman Empire of which he was a citizen to the east and west. Born in 1869 in Istanbul, the crossroads of Eurasia, Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian always defined himself as an ‘oriental collector’.

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