Cleveland Museum of Art
Garden for Solitary Enjoyment
Qiu YingLinkedCulture matchlcp-2944f4c6ae0c
- Date
- 1515–52
- Medium
- Handscroll; ink and light color on silk
- Culture
- China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
- Department
- Chinese Art
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Object ID
- 149414
From the Cleveland Museum of Art record
Garden of Solitary Enjoyment refers to a site built in 1073 by the statesman Sima Guang (1019–1086) after he had retired to Luoyang, Henan province. Every spring, visitors would flock to his garden. Each of its seven structures references a historic figure. Sima wrote: I channel streams [like Du Mu], to water flowers [like Bai Juyi], or trim bamboo [like Wang Huizhi]. . . . I know of no joy between heaven and earth that could take its place . Qiu Ying’s painting, created after an 11th-century version of the same theme, must have appealed to garden owners of the Ming dynasty, since it became the template for numerous Suzhou workshop copies Sima Guang completed his monumental survey of Chinese history, Zizhi tongjian , in the garden depicted in this painting.
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Provenance & credit
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- Credit line
- John L. Severance Fund
- Provenance
- Xiang Yuanbian 項元汴 [1525–1590], Jiaxing, China, by descent to his grandson, Xiang Yukui | by 1644: Xiang Yukui 項禹揆 [c. late 1500s–1659] | by 1880–1904: Weng Tonghe 翁同龢 [1830–1904], Beijing, China, by descent to his family | ?–1978: (Wan-go H. C. Weng 翁萬戈 [1918–2020], Lyme, NH, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) | 1978–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Part of a LinkedCulture topic
Chinese landscape paintingsThese are predominantly Chinese paintings from the Ming, Qing, Yuan, and Song dynasties that depict natural landscape scenes including mountains, rivers, forests, and human settlements using traditional media such as ink
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