红荷鸳鸯相映美Red Lotus and Mandarin Ducks

A lotus pond in summer. The great leaves are splashed in with ink, some as dark as lacquer, some as pale as mist, with paper left bare inside them and the water-blooms of wet ink spreading naturally, some bending, some upturned. Several red lotuses rise clear of the water, their petals outlined and filled in rouge and vermilion around yellow seed-pods, brilliant against the heavy ink. On the water at the centre left, drawn with a few fine lines, a pair of mandarin ducks swims: the drake in many colours with his orange sail feathers raised, the duck in grey-brown behind him, with a few fallen petals floating nearby. Stems of reed lean out among the leaves.

The title at the upper right reads “Red lotus and mandarin ducks, each setting off the other”: the lotus, he, sounds like harmony, and mandarin ducks, always in pairs, stand for a happy marriage.

此作写夏日荷塘。荷叶大片以泼墨写出，浓者如漆，淡者如烟，墨中留白，水晕自然，或俯或仰，层次分明；红荷数朵亭亭出水，花瓣以胭脂朱红勾填，莲蓬点黄，与沉郁的墨叶相映，愈见鲜艳。左中水面细线写波，鸳鸯一双浮游其上，雄者羽色斑斓，橙帆高耸，雌者灰褐相随；水面漂落红瓣数片。几茎芦苇斜出叶间，画面浓淡开合，气韵生动。

右上题“红荷鸳鸯相映美”。荷谐“和”，鸳鸯成双，寓夫妻和美、百年好合。