In the Garden: Highlights from the Chinese Art Collection

In China, walled gardens—in palaces or in the urban homes of scholars, officials, and merchants—have long been viewed as both extensions of domestic space and places of escape from it. Designed for contemplating a carefully constructed version of the natural world, they offered respite from familial and professional duties. Gardens also were favored sites for literary gatherings, solitary study, and other leisure activities.

This installation captures the life of the Chinese garden through paintings and objects. Some scenes portray gatherings set in gardens; others depict open landscapes that can be read as gardens based on the activities they host. Also included are paintings that depict small scenes composed of rocks, insects, and flowers, drawing on the iconography of the garden to represent human virtues such as fidelity and humility. Together, the paintings demonstrate the rich connections among nature, gardens, culture, and art.