Henry James and Unholy Art Acquisitions

The first part of this essay traces Henry James's changing attitudes to art collecting in letters, essays and pronouncements: favourable for British and European public and private museums, rather wary and suspicious about the American rage for collecting. The second part examines the question of 'unholy art acquisitions' as a central concern in Henry James's fiction, both realistically and metaphorically, from The Portrait of a Lady to The Spoils of Poynton. The operation of American 'robber barons' draining Europe of its art treasures is a theme both in The Golden Bowl and in The Outcry, a topical novel where the theme is played out in terms of an 'international' confrontation of Old World's values and concerns about art, and New World's acquisitiveness, 'art-grab' and 'grab-resources'.