BOSTON, MASS.- Across time and place, gardens convey messages about our relationship to the wider world at the intersection of nature and culture. Framing Nature: Gardens and Imagination features nearly 120 works that center the garden as a fertile place for human creativity and imaginative possibility. Drawn from the MFA’s global collection, the exhibition brings together beloved favorites and never-before-seen treasures—from iconic paintings and intricately detailed Chinese scrolls to enchanting tapestries and floral gowns.

Framing Nature is on view at the MFA from March 15 through June 28, 2026, in the Ann and Graham Gund Gallery. The exhibition coincides with the 50th anniversary of Art in Bloom (May 1–3), a beloved tradition that pairs art across the Museum with floral interpretations created by New England garden clubs, professional floral designers, and volunteers.

Framing Nature is co-curated by Elizabeth Dospěl Williams, Penny Vinik Chair of Fashion, Textiles and Jewelry; Karen Haas, Lane Senior Curator of Photographs; Courtney Harris, Associate Curator of Decorative Arts and Sculpture, Art of Europe; and Meghan Melvin, Ruth and Carl J. Shapiro Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings.

Produced by MFA Publications, the accompanying book Gardens and Imagination: Framing Nature in Art features thematic essays by the co-curators. Visitors are also invited to experience the exhibition through a multimedia tour, offered for free on MFA Mobile on Bloomberg Connects, and seek out other nature-inspired artworks throughout the Museum using the new “Blooms and Botanicals” discovery guide.
Exhibition Overview

Organized thematically, the exhibition opens with the monumental Tapestry with park scene (Flemish, late 16th–early 17th century), one of the many featured works that have rarely been on view. Woven from wool and silk, the imagined scene presents an idealized garden teeming with activities: people at play, enjoying music, and tending planted beds.

“Gardens as Art” presents works by artists across history and around the world—from China in the 1700s to New England today—that highlight how gardens serve not only as inspiration for art, but as artistic forms in their own right. The imaginary garden depicted in Elegant gathering in a secluded garden (mid–18th century), a series of scrolls by Yuan Yao (Chinese, active around 1740–80), reflects centuries-old aesthetic and formal standards of Chinese horticulture. In his Autobiography of a Garden (2009–2016), artist and printmaker Andrew Raftery (American, born 1962) memorializes his experience of creating a garden in Providence, Rhode Island. The installation features 12 ceramic plates, one for each month, set against handmade wallpaper evoking the four seasons.

In “Gardens through Time,” ancient Roman works—a fresco panel (14–62 C.E.), a fountain basin with a reclining river god (98–138 C.E.), and marble sculpture of Hermaphroditus (20 B.C.E. to 40 C.E.)—are displayed together to evoke a private garden in Pompeii. Visitors can see how Roman garden features influenced later Italian garden designs in two watercolors by John Singer Sargent (American, 1856–1925): Villa di Marlia, Lucca: The Balustrade (1910) and Villa di Marlia, Lucca: A Fountain (1910).

This section also considers the legacy of the garden of Eden—or more generally an idealized paradise—shared across cultures and religions. Adam and Eve Being Cast from the Garden of Eden (1981–82), a beaded breastplate by Joyce J. Scott (American, born 1948), offers a provocative perspective of the creation story. Contemporary artist Tyler Mitchell (American, born 1995) explores the ideal of a Black utopia in Cage (2022), depicting a figure at leisure against a painted studio backdrop of a blooming garden with a white picket fence.

“Gardens and Gardeners” examines the often invisible labor required to create and maintain a garden. Maria Auxiliadora da Silva (Brazilian, 1935–1974) drew on childhood memories of growing up in the rural state of Minas Gerais to create the vivid scene in Plantação (Plantation) (1971). This joyful vision of a garden intentionally features Black, white, and mixed-race individuals coming together to gather a communal harvest. In Resting (2019), Jay Lynn Gomez (American, born 1986) presents a double portrait of two faceless workers—honoring an often-anonymous, low-paid labor force behind luxurious gardens and private estates.

An immersive video capturing Tenshin-en (or “Garden of the Spirit of Heaven”), the MFA’s contemplative Japanese garden, provides an interlude in the center of the exhibition. Dedicated in 1988, the garden is named after Okakura Kakuzō (also known as Okakura Tenshin) (1863–1913), a former curator of Asian art at the MFA. Open from April to October (weather permitting), Tenshin-en represents a unique merging of two cultures—combining the profound symbolism of a Japanese garden with a feeling that evokes the rocky coastline and deep forests of New England.

“Artists and Gardens" highlights artists who have embraced gardens as sites of inspiration and self-expression. An important figure in art embroidery and an avid gardener, May Morris (English, 1862–1938) translated her love of greenery into a set of four Portières (Curtains) (1892–93) incorporating poetry—including a garden-themed ode by her father, designer William Morris, whose work is also featured in the exhibition. This marks the first time that the four embroideries have been shown together.

This section also features the work of Impressionist painters Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926) and Gustave Caillebotte (French, 1848–1894), who both cultivated their own gardens, as well as photographs by Imogen Cunningham (American, 1883–1976), Ansel Adams (American, 1902–1984), and Josef Sudek (Czech, 1896–1976). A new acquisition, Untitled (Our Family's Garden) from the series Elegant Alien (2023) by Worcester-based photographer Claudio Eshun (Ghanaian, born in 1996), depicts his own family in their garden, the artist and his siblings surrounding the powerful seated figure of their mother.

“Taking the Garden with You” explores the influence of gardens on interior design, jewelry, and fashion, including a rarely displayed evening dress by Christian Dior (French, 1905–1957) and a day dress by Yves Saint Laurent (French, born in Algeria, 1936–2008) for House of Dior. Never exhibited in full in the U.S. before, the Jardin d'Armide wallpaper (about 1855) was designed by Edouard Muller (French, 1823–1876) and manufactured by Jules Defossé (French, 1816–1889) for the 1855 world’s fair in Paris. The work is the result of an incredible technological feat—each color was handprinted from a separate wooden block, with the entire set made from more than 3,000 blocks. Additionally, a scent station highlights florals and other natural aromas used by perfumers.

“Gardens and Power” explores the human impulse to transform and dominate nature. A 16th-century silk hunting carpet likely woven for the Safavid ruler Shah Tahmasp (ruled 1524–1576) expresses his domination over nature and reflects the tradition of paradisical gardens in Persian culture. Known as the “Boston Hunting Carpet,” it is one of the most exceptional Persian carpets in the world. The monumental Birthday portrait of a lady (Chinese, late 18th century) honors a learned woman surrounded by books and other accessories typically associated with male scholars—declaring her position of social and intellectual power.

The final section, “Garden Futures,” explores how gardens invite us to reimagine our relationship to land and to envision a different future. A reflection of the artist’s longstanding focus on the human impact on landscapes, Magnetic Field (2023) by Mary Mattingly (American, born 1978) appears to be set in a Dr. Seuss-like world turned upside down. Photographs taken by Graciela Iturbide (Mexican, born 1942) in the ethnobotanical garden in Oaxaca offer haunting portraits of native plants literally on life support, with their handmade splints and bandages and hanging IVs. The exhibition concludes with the Greenery tapestry (1892), designed by John Henry Dearle (English, 1860–1932) for Morris & Co., which reflects founder William Morris’s call to return to nature amid industrial change.