Garden for Solitary Enjoyment
Qiu Ying (Chinese, 1494–1552)
1515–52
- Medium
- Handscroll; ink and light color on silk
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Painting: 28 x 518.5 cm (11 x 204 1/8 in.); Overall: 32 x 1290.2 cm (12 5/8 x 507 15/16 in.)
- Culture
- China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Chinese Art
- Credit line
- John L. Severance Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
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
