西方学界对中国绘画的研究发轫于20世纪初期。彼时,欧美弥漫着一股向往远东艺术与哲学的热潮,博物馆、藏家对东亚艺术品趋之若鹜。分析20世纪第一个十年间出版的相关著述,可见初期西方中国绘画研究的基本面貌:普及性推介异域文明,鲜少触及具体图像分析。显然,西方世界亟须建构关于中国绘画的知识谱系。喜龙仁(Osvald Sirén,18799—19666)正是一位恰逢其时的探路者,高居翰(James Cahill)认为,他以艺术史家的眼光搜集信息,组织译介,发布成果,为西方艺术史学框架之下 Western academic research on Chinese painting developed in the early 20th century. At that time, Europe and the United States filled with an upsurge of longing for Far East art and philosophy. Museums and collectors are keen on East Asian art. Analysis of the related works published in the first decade of the 20th century shows the basic appearance of early Western Chinese painting research: popularizing exotic civilizations and rarely touching on specific image analysis. Obviously, the Western world needs to construct a pedigree of knowledge about Chinese painting. It was precisely at the right time that Osvald Sirén (18799-19666), a Pathfinder, thought James Cahill sought to gather information from an art historian’s perspective, organize translations, publish results, Under the framework of art historiography