清/現代　齊白石　水族圖四屏　軸|Water Life

Qi Baishi

dated 1940 · Set of four hanging scrolls; ink on paper · Asian Art

This set of paintings—of the familiar creatures of the pond on one hand, and a studied evocation of the work of the seventeenth-century monk-artist Bada Shanren on the other—demonstrates the broad appeal of Qi Baishi's work. The sweeping tendrils and crusty shell of the shrimp, the structure of the crab, and the moist flesh of the frogs poised to spring are rendered with the greatest economy of means. The paper becomes the pond in which elemental life is stirred by the brush. This is the calligrapher's art at its best in painting.

Artist

Qi Baishi

Date

dated 1940

Medium

Set of four hanging scrolls; ink on paper

Culture

China

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Gift of Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, in memory of La Ferne Hatfield Ellsworth, 1986