富贵白头Wealth and Honour, White Hair Together

A great clump of peonies rises from the foot of the scroll and fills almost half of it: peach, rouge, crimson, yellow and orange, the heads large and every petal shaded, rich as brocade where the colour is dense and almost luminous where it thins. On the right stands a massive rock, rubbed in with pale ink and ochre and edged with heavy moss dots touched with mineral green; another peony branch with a few buds grows behind it. Above, the paper is left largely empty, and down through that space a pair of bulbuls swoops on spread wings, one behind the other, sketched in a few quick strokes. The airy birds and the dense flowers below answer each other, open above and crowded beneath.

The title on the right reads “Wealth and Honour, White Hair Together”, dated early winter of the guimao year: the white-headed bulbul stands for growing old together, the peony for wealth and honour, a wish for a long and loving marriage.

牡丹一丛自画底拔起，几占半幅：桃红、胭脂、朱红、明黄、橙黄诸色并陈，花头硕大，瓣瓣分染，浓处如锦，淡处透光。右侧巨石一方，淡墨淡赭皴擦，石边浓墨苔点间以石绿，沉着厚重；石后又出牡丹一枝，花苞数点。画幅上部大片留白，白头翁一双振翅斜飞而下，一前一后，顾盼呼应，以简笔写出，轻灵生动，与下方繁花一疏一密，章法开合有度。

右侧题“富贵白头”，款署“癸卯初冬”。白头翁寓白头偕老，牡丹寓富贵，合为夫妻和美、富贵长久之祝愿。