红荷鸳鸯图Red Lotus and Mandarin Ducks (II)

The ground is washed in pale green and yellow so the pond seems wrapped in mist. On the right a great lotus leaf is splashed in heavy ink, its veins picked out in scorched-dark ink, and above it two red lotuses open, outlined and filled from rouge at the tips to pale pink at the base around yellow hearts, with two buds, one high and one low. At the centre left two seed-pods hang their heads, the seeds dotted in red-brown. Along the foot of the scroll, on water drawn with a few fine lines, a pair of mandarin ducks swims one behind the other: the drake brilliantly coloured, the duck in plain grey-brown, with fallen petals drifting by.

The title at the left reads “Red Lotus and Mandarin Ducks”, painted beside West Lake in Hangzhou in the spring of 2024. Red lotus and mandarin ducks together wish for harmony and lasting love.

底色以淡绿、淡黄渲染，水气迷蒙。右侧荷叶以浓墨大笔泼写，墨色沉厚，叶脉以焦墨勾出；其上红荷两朵盛开，花瓣双钩填色，由瓣尖胭脂渐向瓣根淡粉，莲心点黄，另有花苞两枝，一高一低。左中莲蓬两枚，垂首低昂，莲子以赭红点出。画底细线写水，鸳鸯一双游于其间，雄者羽色绚丽，雌者灰褐朴素，一前一后，顾盼相随，水面飘着几片落瓣。

左侧题“红荷鸳鸯图”，款记甲辰春月作于杭州西子湖畔。红荷与鸳鸯同绘，寓和合美满、相亲相爱。