锦羽荣花Brocade Feathers, Flourishing Flowers

Peonies fill the scroll from top to bottom in deep red, pink and pale yellow; one soft yellow bloom on the left gives the whole a gentle warmth. Above the middle, a pair of golden pheasants stands on a garden rock. The male has a golden crest, a scarlet breast and a long tail whose barred feathers are drawn line by line as they fall toward the lower right; the female, in mottled browns, waits quietly behind him. The rock is rubbed in with pale ink and ochre, a calm passage against the richness of the flowers and birds that lets the painting breathe.

The title sets the pheasant’s brocade-like plumage beside the flourishing peonies, a wish for a life that is bright, honoured and full.

牡丹满幅，深红、粉红、淡黄相间，左侧淡黄一朵尤为温润。画幅中上，锦鸡一对立于湖石：雄者金冠朱胸，长尾翎羽以细线逐丝写出，自石上垂向右下；雌者羽色褐黄，静立其后。湖石以淡墨淡赭皴擦，与浓丽花鸟相映，浓淡相生，画面遂有呼吸之地。

题曰“锦羽荣花”，以锦绣之羽与繁盛之花并举，羽借花色，花得羽光，寓光彩焕发、荣华富贵。