Programme de Recherche International
Normandie
Paris Île de France

“Museums, libraries, and web sites celebrate the names of Philippe Sichel, Siegfried Bing, and Hayashi Tadamasa as “great dealers of Japanese art” and present them as the pioneers of the nascent Japan trade in France. In contrast, the names of Louise Chopin Desoye, Marie Antoinette Schlotterer Malinet, and Florine Ebstein Langweil have been largely lost to history, even when they informed and complemented the work of these better-known men. This lecture uses newly discovered archival material to emphasize the participation of women in the nineteenth-century Paris market for Japanese antiquities. It will raise questions about the socio-economic structures and stereotypes that have led to their disappearance and strategies for recovering their histories.”