The Manchu conquest followed several decades of political weakness at the Ming court that had left large portions of the country in chaos. When the capital in Beijing fell to a Chinese bandit army in 1644, Manchu forces poised along the Great Wall routed the rebels but then continued their march southward. After crushing Ming resistance in the city of Yangzhou, which was burned for ten days as an example, the southern capital of Nanjing surrendered, but it took another forty years to suppress various Ming claimants to the throne and to quell armed rebellions in the south.

During this time, many former Ming subjects maintained their loyalty to the fallen regime by refusing service under the Manchu Qing ("pure") dynasty (1644–1911). To endure the often harsh conditions of alien rule, these so-called leftover subjects took psychological as well as physical refuge in nature, and their representations of landscape often project their emotional responses to this radically changed world order. In transforming painting and calligraphy into vehicles for self-expression, they demonstrated a remarkable independence from traditional styles and techniques. For this reason, they have been celebrated as visionary individualists, whose styles have remained influential down to the present day.

In order to provide an appropriate aesthetic and intellectual context for the material, the exhibition will be organized into five thematic or regional groupings: Ming Martyrs; The Yellow Mountain and Nanjing Regional Schools; Guangdong Artists; Monk Painters; and Jiangsu and Zhejiang Artists.