Lotus and Two Birds

Bada Shanren, Qing Dynasty
Ink on paper
182*98cm

Bada Shanren was a master at controlling ink washes, lines and the amount of water soaked up by the brush. Although he never once in his life used any color other than black ink in his paintings, his works thrill by their full-bodied musicality. This painting shows two kingfishers perched on rocks in a corner of a pond laced with lotus blossoms singing to each other. The artist's low perspective makes the lotus leaves loom larger than life to become a canopy that partially obscures the sky and the sun. The steep cliff and the low rocks on the flanks, together with the birds in dialogue and the pale lotus in the far background, constitute a serene, private world in microcosm, the kind of world in which Bada Shanren, nostalgic for his lost paradise, expected to be able to forget the troubles of the other world. He became a monk for the same reason.