Siqisbert Chretien Bosch Reitz

• Born: 1860
• Died: 1938

Siqisbert Chretien Bosch Reitz was the first curator of the Department of Far Eastern Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Bosch Reitz was a Dutch artist who had trained in Munich and Paris before traveling to Japan in 1900, where he studied woodblock printing. In 1914, he was meant to become curator at the Louvre in Paris, but fled to the United States due to World War I, and was then hired by the Met to help found a new Department of Far Eastern Art in 1915. The purview of the new department included the art of China, Korea, Japan, and Tibet, but not of India which was still included under Near Eastern and Islamic Art until 1932. The East Asian artworks were originally displayed on the second floor balcony overlooking the Grand Hall, and though an extensive set of East Asian galleries can be found at the Met today, decorative arts such as Chinese ceramics and porcelains continue to dominate the balcony gallery.

References

• Mike Hearn, "Nine "Secrets" about the History of the Met's Department of Asian Art," Now At the Met, 20 Feb 2015.