Framing Nature: Gardens and Imagination
Courtesy of Tim Correira Photography.
Courtesy of Tim Correira Photography.
Courtesy of Tim Correira Photography.
Courtesy of Tim Correira Photography.
Courtesy of Tim Correira Photography.
Courtesy of Tim Correira Photography.
Courtesy of Tim Correira Photography.
Courtesy of Tim Correira Photography.
“… a jaunt through millenia represented in the MFA’s remarkable collection, from the ancient world to the here and now.”
A plot of land, a relaxing retreat, a formal landscape, a place of constant labor: gardens can carry a range of associations, especially in the world of art. “Framing Nature: Gardens and Imagination” brings together art from across the MFA’s global collection to explore striking similarities and differences across time and place.
Visitors can see both beloved favorites and previously unseen masterpieces, all centering the garden as a fertile place for human creativity and imaginative possibility. Works ranging from wall-sized tapestries and intricately detailed Chinese scrolls give the illusion of garden spaces. Modern and contemporary prints, drawings, photographs, and paintings bring visitors on an immersive journey through a variety of cultivated and natural worlds. Visitors can look at how we relate to the outdoors, shape garden spaces through cultivation, care, and labor, and express this universal human impulse through art.
“Framing Nature” coincides with the 50th anniversary of Art in Bloom—a beloved tradition that takes place at the MFA every spring.
See It with a Ticket
Everyone needs a timed-entry ticket to see the exhibition, including members—reserve yours to guarantee entry. Don’t forget, exhibition tickets include general admission to the Museum!
- Ann and Graham Gund Gallery (Gallery LG31)
Audio Tour on MFA Mobile
Explore MFA Mobile on Bloomberg Connects to dive deep into the exhibition and artwork with MFA curators and an artist. The audio tour includes text transcripts and detailed audio descriptions of the featured artworks for visitors who are blind or have low vision.
Access the tour from home or bring your ear buds or headphones for the full in-gallery experience.
Images
Unidentified artist, birthday portrait of a lady, Chinese, Qing dynasty, late 18th century
Ink, color, and gold on silk. Marshall H. Gould Fund.
John Henry Dearle, Tapestry: Greenery, designed for Morris & Co., 1892
Wool and mohair; tapestry weave. Charles Potter Kling Fund and Museum purchase with funds donated anonymously and from Jody and Tom Gill, Suzanne Dworsky, Heidi Nitze, Mr. and Mrs. E. Lee Perry, Ann Clarkeson, Rita J. and Stanley H. Kaplan Family Foundation, Inc., Lynne Rickabaugh, Penny Vinik, Brigitte Moufflet, Doris May, Mrs. I. W. Colburn, Kathleen Kemper, and Edith I. Welch.
Ross Sterling Turner, A Garden Is a Sea of Flowers, 1912
Transparent and opaque watercolor on board. Gift of the Estate of Nellie Parney Carter.
Daniela Edburg, The melon, 2011
Wool, cotton and synthetic yarns, styrofoam. Gift of Daniela Edburg. © Daniela Edburg.
Josef Sudek, A Walk in the Magic Garden, 1954
Gelatin silver print. The Sonja Bullaty and Angelo Lomeo Collection of Josef Sudek Photographs. © Anna Fárová.
Yoshida Hiroshi, Iris Garden in Horikiri, from the series Twelve Scenes of Tokyo, Shōwa era, 1928 (Shōwa 3)
Woodblock print; ink and color on paper. Gift of L. Aaron Lebowich.
Mary Mattingly, Magnetic Field, 2023
Archival pigment print. Linda C. Wisnewski Fund for Photography. © Mary Mattingly.
Gregory Crewdson, Untitled, 1992
Chromogenic print. Gift of Gregory Crewdson, courtesy of Luhring Augustine. Courtesy of Gregory Crewdson and Luhring Augustine Gallery, NYC.
Claudio Eshun, Untitled (Our Family’s Garden), from the series Elegant Alien, 2023
Inkjet print. The Heritage Fund for a Diverse Collection. © Claudio Eshun (aka Don Claude).
Richard Earlom (after Phillipp Reinagle), The Superb Lily (Lilium Superbum), 1799
Mezzotint, some aquatint, printed in color and hand-colored. Bequest of George P. Dike—Elita R. Dike Collection.
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Pilgrim in the Garden from Chaucer’s “Romance of the Rose”, 1881
Black chalk over graphite on two joined sheets of paper. Gift in memory of Charles Eliot Norton from his children, Richard Norton, Sara Norton, Rupert Norton, Eliot Norton, Margaret Norton, and Elizabeth Gaskell Norton.
Unidentified artist, album page with prince and lady under flowering branch, Persian, recto: early 16th century, verso: about 1420–40, mounted in album about 1544–45
Recto: ink, color, and gold on paper; verso: ink, color, and gold on silk with paper borders. Museum purchase with funds from the Francis Bartlett Donation of 1912 and by contribution.
Hilary Pecis, Hopie in the Garden, 2021
Acrylic on linen. Gift of Federico Martin Castro Debernardi. © Hilary Pecis.
Barbara P. Norfleet, Anne Mazlish, 1987
Gelatin silver print. Edwin E. Jack Fund. © Barbara P. Norfleet 1987.
Unknown artist, mosaic emblema with cupids gathering roses in a garden, Roman, North African, Imperial period, late 2nd–mid-3rd century
Fine stone and glass tesserae on terracotta panel. Museum purchase with funds donated by Jeffrey and Pamela Dippel Choney.
Designed by Edouard Muller, Jardin d’Armide wallpaper, manufactured by Jules Defossé, about 1855
Block-printed paper, lined with Japanese paper. Ernest Wadsworth Longfellow Fund.
Sponsors
Generous support is provided by Penny Vinik. Additional support is provided by Nancy and Michele Kolligian in memory of their mother Rose V. Kolligian, the Laura and Tait Nielsen Exhibition Fund, the James & Virginia Welch Foundation, the Loring Textile Gallery Exhibition Fund, the Wendy Lipsey Ecker and Family Exhibition and Publication Fund for Fashion, Textiles and Jewelry, the Patricia B. Jacoby Exhibition Fund, and the Ellen and Robert Jaffe Fund.
Media partner is WCVB Channel 5 Boston.