On loan to The Met The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Dreaming of Flowers
Zhai Jichang Chinese
Not on view
This painting tells the story of how the scholar Wang Guozhen came to have the nickname “Dreaming of Flowers” (Menghua, 夢花). One day, Wang dozed off while at work in his garden. In a dream state, he walked into the garden, where he encountered an old man who lectured him on the illusory nature of sight, saying: “This riot of lushness around you . . . they are flowers, yet they are not, as flowers are only ever the illusion of flowers.” Light color and faint ink make the scene dreamlike, but they also reflect a renewed interest among nineteenth-century artists in Suzhou painters of the sixteenth century. This lightness of touch offered an antidote to the bold and heavy styles that had dominated the eighteenth century.
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