映日荷花别样红Lotus Flowers Red in the Sun

A small round painting on card. Two or three lotus leaves are splashed in dark and pale ink, heavy and rich, glazed with pale green, and a red lotus opens at the centre, its petals laid in rouge and vermilion without outline around a seed-pod dotted green and yellow, brilliant against the ink. On a stalk at the upper right perches a kingfisher, blue-green back and rust breast, its feathers finely spotted with white, looking down. At the left, in running script, is Yang Wanli’s Song-dynasty poem on seeing off Lin Zifang at dawn from Jingci Temple: West Lake in the sixth month is like no other season, lotus leaves green to the sky, lotus flowers red in the sun.

Dated summer of the gengzi year, 2020. Poem and picture answer each other: the red flower and the green leaves are the poem’s own colours.

此为卡纸圆光小品。荷叶两三以浓淡墨泼写，墨色沉厚，叶上淡绿罩染；红荷一朵居中盛开，花瓣以胭脂朱红没骨写出，莲蓬点以石绿与黄，鲜艳夺目。右上荷梗上翠鸟一只，翠背赭胸，羽上白点细密，俯首下望。左侧以行书题宋杨万里《晓出净慈寺送林子方》诗：“毕竟西湖六月中，风光不与四时同。接天莲叶无穷碧，映日荷花别样红。”诗画相映。

款署“庚子夏月”。以诗入画，写西湖六月荷花之盛，红荷碧叶，正应“别样红”之句。