前程似锦A Future Bright as Brocade (horizontal)

A horizontal sheet. At its centre a pair of golden pheasants stands on a grassy bank. The male, golden-crested and scarlet-bellied, with a green collar and bright wings, raises his long tail and turns back toward his mate; the speckled brown female lifts her head to meet him. Both are drawn in fine outline and filled feather by feather. Behind them rises a pierced garden rock, shaded in pale ink and ochre. Peonies open on either side, pink on the left, crimson and a single pale yellow on the right, and two butterflies flutter in at the upper left. The bank is laid in with flat pale green, dotted with ink for grass, so the scene feels open yet finely made.

The title runs across the upper right: A Future Bright as Brocade. Jin, brocade, is also the jin of jinji, the golden pheasant; with the peonies of wealth it wishes for a bright road ahead. It shares its title with a vertical scroll in this collection, but the composition is new.

此为横幅。画幅中央，锦鸡一对立于坡上：雄鸡金冠朱腹，翠颈彩翼，长尾高扬，回首顾盼；雌鸡褐羽斑斑，昂首相迎，翎毛皆以工笔细细勾勒填彩。其后玲珑湖石一方，淡墨淡赭皴染，孔窍分明。两侧牡丹盛开，左粉右红，间以浅黄一朵，花头丰腴；左上蛱蝶两只，翩然飞来。坡地以淡绿平涂，墨笔点草，画面开阔而不失细致。

右上横题“前程似锦”。锦鸡之“锦”即锦绣之“锦”，配以富贵牡丹，寓前路光明、事业兴旺。此与本站所列竖幅同题之作构图各异。