The collection of the Hungarian bacteriologist professor, Dr Ottó Fettick (1875–1954), which counts approximately 5,000 objects, is quite unique from the viewpoint of collecting Japanese art since it includes a considerable number of Western masterpieces of Japonisme, as well as ca. 200 fine pieces of Japanese applied arts (kōgei) mostly from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Those two groups of objects emerged on the Western art market during the same era and were arguably united under the same roof on purpose, but today, his Western objects are preserved at the Museum of Applied Arts, and his Japanese artworks are held at the Ferenc Hopp Museum of Asiatic Arts in Budapest.
The curious case of Dr Fettick is that he never visited Japan, he purchased all his artworks in Europe, and he did not leave behind any information on the background of his acquisitions apart from a few hints on previous owners from Budapest, Vienna, Munich, London and Paris, as well as on exhibitions and auction houses where he made his purchases. In this presentation, I will introduce Dr Fettick’s Japanese art collection through existent or missing provenance data, as well as information dug out of archives, and carve out the international network of Japanophiles that emerges through them.
As a methodological context, I will present the state of provenance research today, as well as its use within Asian Studies. I will illuminate the categorization of object types based on their history related to earlier owners and how they came to Europe (as export art, collectibles, travel memorabilia, etc.). Since almost half of the provenance information concerning Dr Fettick’s collection is lost, I will raise the question of what can be done in similar cases.

Mirjam Dénes is a curator of Japanese art at Ferenc Hopp Museum of Asiatic Arts, and a PhD student at the Department of Art History at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, where she is about to submit her thesis on Japonisme and Meiji kōgei at the collection of Dr. Ottó Fettick. Until spring 2024, she is a visiting researcher at the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (funded by Hungarian Eötvös Grant for PhD Research).

To attendees from outside the Department: Please register with organizer Jaqueline Berndt (jberndt@su.se).