乾坤清气Pure Air Between Heaven and Earth

A small painting on card, of lotus alone. The leaves are splashed in with a big brush in dark and pale ink, spreading layer below layer down the card, wet and rich, brightened with dots of mineral green, their stalks straight as pillars and finely prickled. Two pink lotuses: one half-open at the top, its seed-pod just showing; one in full bloom lower down, outlined, its rouge fading from the petal tips to the base, the seed-pod dotted in green and ochre. Fine-leaved water plants and reeds lean in from the right, light and airy against the heavy ink.

The title at the upper left reads “Pure Air Between Heaven and Earth”, after Wang Mian’s line “only leave pure air to fill heaven and earth”: the lotus, rising clean from the mud, is a figure for an unsullied character.

此为卡纸小品，纯写荷花。荷叶以浓淡墨大笔泼写，自上而下层层铺展，墨色淋漓，叶上石绿点醒，叶柄挺直如柱，点刺细密。粉荷两朵，一在上方半开，莲蓬隐现；一在下方盛放，花瓣双钩，胭脂由瓣尖晕向瓣根，莲蓬点以石绿与赭黄，清丽可人。几丛细叶水草与芦苇自右侧斜出，轻盈疏朗，与沉厚的墨叶一轻一重，相得益彰。

左上题“乾坤清气”，语出王冕“只留清气满乾坤”。荷花出淤泥而不染，以喻清白高洁之品格。