千年桃实大如斗Thousand-Year Peaches, Large as a Measure

A painting of the peaches of immortality. Two peach trees rise from the lower right, their trunks in pale ink and ochre, round and solid, dotted to show the roughness of the bark. The foliage is swept in with a large brush loaded with dark, wet ink, long narrow leaves brightened here and there with touches of mineral blue, in the free xieyi manner. Peaches hang everywhere, hidden among the leaves or weighing down the branches, laid in pale yellow and flushed with rouge that deepens toward one side, so round and ripe they seem almost to give off their scent. The left of the sheet is left empty except for a single column of calligraphy running from top to bottom.

The inscription reads “Thousand-year peaches, large as a measure of grain”, a phrase from the language of birthday blessings: the peach is the fruit of the immortals and stands for long life. It records that the work was painted beside West Lake in Hangzhou in the winter of 2025.

此作写仙桃。两株桃树自右下拔起，树干以淡墨赭石写出，用笔圆浑，皴点表现树皮的粗粝；枝叶以浓墨大笔挥写，叶片狭长，墨色淋漓，间以石青点醒，颇具写意之趣。桃实累累，或藏于叶间，或垂于枝头，以淡黄打底，胭脂点染，红晕由深至浅，饱满圆润，似有甘香溢出。画幅左侧大片留白，题字一行贯通上下，章法疏朗。

左侧题“千年桃实大如斗”，出自民间祝寿之语。桃为仙果，寓长寿；以此画为长者祝福，意蕴吉祥。款记乙巳冬月作于杭州西子湖畔。