Jorge Welsh Works of Art

Founded by Jorge Welsh and Luísa Vinhais, Jorge Welsh Works of Art has been devoted to the rigorous study, preservation, and responsible stewardship of cross-cultural works of art. With galleries in London and Lisbon, the galleries are grounded in a longstanding commitment to scholarly research, connoisseurship, and the historical understanding of artistic exchange.

Over the past forty years, the gallery has assembled a carefully considered collection of important works of art, with particular strength in Chinese export porcelain, alongside significant examples of African (Afro-Portuguese), Japanese (Namban), and Indian (Indo-Portuguese) art. Dating from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries, these works reflect the complex and sustained artistic dialogues that emerged through early global encounters, trade, and diplomacy.

Jorge Welsh Works of Art primarily participates in TEFAF Maastricht and has also been represented at leading international fairs, including Fine Art Asia in Hong Kong and Asian Art in London, reaching an international audience of scholars, collectors, and institutions.

Since 1999, the gallery’s in-house editorial division, Jorge Welsh Research & Publication, has contributed to supporting academic research and dissemination. It has produced more than sixty scholarly publications and exhibition catalogues in English, Portuguese, Spanish, and Chinese, which have become established reference works for researchers, curators, and academic institutions.

Works acquired through the gallery are today held in major museums, institutional collections, and private collections worldwide, reflecting the enduring scholarly and cultural relevance of the works presented.

Guided by principles of academic rigour, integrity and connoisseurship, Jorge Welsh Works of Art continues to foster informed dialogue between cultures, disciplines, and institutions. Looking ahead, the gallery remains committed to the values that have defined its first forty years: meticulous research, ethical stewardship, and a sustained engagement with the artistic legacies that shaped the early modern world.

  • Our pieces have been acquired by the following museums and institutions:

    Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
    Art Museum of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin NT, Hong Kong
    Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore
    Baur Foundation, Museum of Far Eastern Art, Geneva
    Casa Colombo, Museu do Porto Santo, Porto Santo
    Foundation Gandur pour l’Art, Geneva
    Fundação Carmona e Costa, Lisbon
    Fundação Millenium BCP, Lisbon
    Fundação Oriente, Lisbon
    Groninger Museum, Groningen
    Guanfu Classical Art Museum, Chaoyang, Beijing
    Guangdong Museum, Tianhe, Guangzhou
    Hong Kong Maritime Museum, Hong Kong
    Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum of Indian Art, Himayatnagar, Hyderabad
    Jamestown, Yorktown Foundation, Williamsburg, Virginia
    Kyushu National Museum, Tokyo
    Louvre Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi
    Macao Museum, Macao
    Madeira Tecnopolo, Funchal
    Musée Cernuschi, Paris
    Musée de la Compagnie des Indes, Ville de Lorient, Port-Louis
    Musée National d’Histoire et d’Art, Luxembourg
    Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas, Madrid
    Museo Oriental, Valladolid
    Museu A Cidade do Açucar, Funchal
    Museu Conde de Castro Guimarães, Cascais
    Museu de Arte Sacra de Santiago do Cacém, Santiago do Cacém
    Museu de Arte Sacra do Funchal, Funchal
    Museu de São Roque, Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa, Lisbon
    Museu do Caramulo, Caramulo
    Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon
    Museu Quinta das Cruzes, Funchal
    Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm
    Nanchang University Museum, Honggutan, Nanchang
    National Maritime Museum, Amsterdam
    National Museum, Singapore
    National Palace Museum, Taipei
    Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts
    Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
    Prasart Museum, Bangkok
    Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
    Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp
    Royal Museums of Art and History, Brussels
    Schloss Museum Wolfshagen, Wolfshagen, Langelsheim
    Shanghai Museum, Huangpu, Shanghai
    Staatliche Kunstammlungen, Dresden-Zwinger, Dresden
    The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
    The New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, Louisiana
    The Palace and Maritime Silk Road Museum, Quanzhou, Shishi
    The Reeves Center, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia
    The Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky
    Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut

  • Our works of art have been lent to the following museum exhibitions:

    The Porcelain Room: Chinese Export Porcelain, Fondazione Prada, Milan, 2020

    Um Rei e Três Imperadores: Portugal, a China e Macau no Tempo de D. João V, Museu de São Roque, Lisbon 2019

    Três Embaixadas Europeias à China, Museu do Oriente, Lisbon, 2018

    Contar Áfricas!, Padrão dos Descobrimentos, Lisbon, 2018

    Uma História de Assombro: Portugal – Japão, Séculos XVI a XX, Galeria D. Luís, Palácio Nacional da Ajuda, Lisbon, 2018

    The Blue of the Seas: Dialogues between China, Persia and Europe, Baur Foundation, Museum of Far Eastern Art, Geneva, 2017

    Portugal: Drawing the World, Musée National d'Histoire et d'Art, Luxembourg, 2017

    A Cidade Global: Lisboa no Renascimento, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon, 2017

    Namban: os Bárbaros do Sul e o Encontro de Culturas, Museu da Quinta das Cruzes, Funchal, 2016

    The dancing Dragon! Kangxi / China contemporary, Hetjens-Museum, Düsseldorf Deutsches Keramikmuseum, Düsseldorf, 2015

    Onde os nossos livros se acabam, ali começam os seus...:O Japão em fontes documentais dos séculos XVI e XVII, Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, Lisbon, 2015

    O Exótico nunca está em casa? A China na Faiança e no Azulejo portugueses (séculos XVI - XVIII), Museu Nacional do Azulejo, Lisbon, 2013

    Portugal, Jesuits, and Japan: Spiritual Beliefs and Earthly Goods, Boston College’s McMullen Museum of Art, Boston, Massachusetts, 2013

    Line and Colour: Japanese Arts and the European Connection, Museo degli Argenti, Palazzo Pitti, Florence, 2012

    Namban Commissions: The Portuguese in Modern Age Japan, Museu Fundação Oriente, Lisbon, 2010

    Fascination with the Foreign: China – Japan – Europe, Hetjens-Museum, Düsseldorf Deutsches Keramikmuseum, Düsseldorf, 2009

    Encompassing the Globe: Portugal e o Mundo nos séculos XVI e XVII, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon, 2009

    Tomás Pereira (1646-1708): A Jesuit in Kangxi´s China, Centro Científico e Cultural de Macau, Lisbon, 2009

    Encompassing the Globe: Portugal and the World in the 16th & 17th Centuries, Musée des Beaux Arts, Brussels, 2008

    O Espelho Invertido: Imagens Asiáticas dos Europeus 1500 - 1800, Centro Científico e Cultural de Macau, Lisbon, 2007

    Le Grand Atelier: Europalia, Brussels, 2007

    Macau: O Primeiro Século de um Porto Internacional, Centro Científico e Cultural de Macau, Lisbon, 2007

    Encompassing the Globe: Portugal and the World in the 16th & 17th Centuries, Freer Gallery of Art and The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., Columbia, 2007

    São Francisco Xavier: A Sua Vida e o Seu tempo (1506-1552), Cordoria Nacional, Lisbon, 2006

    Dresden, Spiegel der Welt, Die Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden in Japan, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2005

    A Porcelana Chinesa nas Colecções do Museu Quinta das Cruzes, Museu Quinta das Cruzes, Funchal, 2005

    Encounters: The Meeting of Asia and Europe 1500-1800, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 2004

    Peregrinações: Homenagem a Maria Helena Mendes Pinto, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, 2003

    Province Plates: A Cultural Dialogue Between Two Civilizations, Museum Geelvinck Hinlopen Huis, Amsterdam, 2003

    Hybrides: Porcelaines Chinoises aux Armoiries Territoriales Européennes, Musée National d'Histoire et d'Art, Luxembourg, 2003

    O Mundo da Laca, Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, 2001

    Os Fundamentos da Amizade: Cinco Séculos de Relações Culturais e Artísticas Luso-Chinesas, Centro Científico e Cultural de Macau, Lisbon, 1999-2000

    Escolhas: Objectos Raros e de Colecção, Paços do Concelho, Câmara Municipal de Lisboa e Associação Portuguesa de Antiquários, Lisbon, 1999

    Vasco da Gama e a Índia, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Sorbonne Chapel, Paris, 1998

    Caminhos da Porcelana, Fundação Oriente, Lisbon, 1998

    Reflexos do Cristianismo na Porcelana Chinesa, Museu de São Roque, Lisbon, 1996