Boy and girl gardeners c. 1770

Curator: Here we have Carl Gottlieb Lück's "Boy and Girl Gardeners", a delicate porcelain sculpture in the Harvard Art Museums collection. Editor: It's charming! The figures seem so light, almost weightless, despite clearly being made of porcelain. I wonder about the process of creating something so detailed out of clay. Curator: The figures and their attire reflect the Rococo era's embrace of leisure and pastoral life, particularly among the aristocracy. Gardening became a symbol of refined taste and connection to nature. Editor: It is interesting to consider how the labor of agriculture became something to be aestheticized. The watering can the boy carries—did it symbolize something beyond gardening itself? Curator: Certainly. It speaks to a controlled, idealized relationship with nature—one where manual labor is almost performative. Editor: These figures, frozen in time, represent not only an artistic achievement but also a specific, perhaps skewed, vision of labor and social class. Curator: A fascinating glimpse into a bygone era's relationship with nature and class. Editor: Indeed—a snapshot of a world crafted as deliberately as this porcelain.