荷香图Fragrance of the Lotus

The whole sheet is washed with lotus leaves in pale green and pale ink, layer over misty layer, while a single leaf at the centre right is splashed in heavy ink and anchors the composition. Four or five pink lotuses, open or in bud, stand among the dark and pale leaves, their petals outlined and touched with rouge at the tips around yellow hearts. A few reeds in pale ink lean with the wind. At the foot of the scroll a pair of red-crowned cranes, black-necked and white-bodied with a spot of red on the crown, are set down in a few economical lines, one standing tall, the other stepping forward with its head lowered.

The title at the upper right reads “Fragrance of the Lotus”. The lotus rises clean from the mud, the crane is the bird of long life: a pond of lotus and cranes is a picture of purity and longevity. The subject is close to Quiet Pleasures of the Lotus Pond in this collection, but the brushwork here is freer.

满纸以淡绿、淡墨渲染荷叶，水晕层叠，迷蒙一片；右中一张荷叶以浓墨泼成，墨气沉厚，压住画心。粉荷四五，或开或苞，花瓣双钩，瓣尖晕染胭脂，花心点黄，亭亭立于墨叶与淡叶之间。几茎芦苇斜出，以淡墨写成，随风俯仰。画底丹顶鹤一双，一只昂首而立，一只俯身前行，顶缀朱红，黑颈素羽，以简练的线条写出体态，生动自然。

右上题“荷香图”。荷出淤泥而不染，鹤为长寿之禽，荷塘双鹤，清逸高洁，寓清廉长寿。与本站所列“荷塘清趣”题材相近，而笔墨更为放逸。