The Five Deer Hermitage

Object Details

• Artist

  Li Shida (active 1580-1621)

• Label

  This album leaf and F1988.8c, each by a different artist, present disparate views of a small private estate called the Wulu shanfang (Five Deer Hermitage), located near Daming in Hebei Province. While the depictions differ in many details, the basic elements-a walled (or fenced) garden compound with numerous buildings, located on a small island connected to the mainland by one or more small bridges-are consistent. Judging from the discrepancies, however, one or both of the artists may have worked from memory, or even from written or oral accounts, to create their representations of the garden's layout and environs. As portraiture was not particularly popular during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), scholars often used depictions of their gardens as artistic expressions of their personal identities and cultural aspirations. By inviting two such eminent scholar-artists as Li Shida and Lu Shiren to paint his garden, the owner of the Five Deer Hermitage was undoubtedly more interested in their poetic evocations of his property than in precise and topographically accurate representations.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  East of Eden: Gardens in Asian Art (February 24 to May 13, 2007)

  Chinese Gardens in Painters Imagination (February 1, 1997 to January 4, 1998)

  Chinese Gardens in the Painter's Imagination (January 13, 1997 to January 5, 1998)

• Origin

  China

• Credit Line

  Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment

• Type

  Painting

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1600s, 1630s

• Name

  Li, Shida

• Place

  China

• Topic

  Water, Mountains, Art, Chinese Art, Ming dynasty (1368 - 1644), Gardens

• Culture

  Chinese

• Object Type

  Paintings