Ink Bamboo, Hanging Scroll
Jin Nong
Qing Dynasty
- MEDIUM:Ink on paper
- FORMATS:Hanging scroll
- DIMENSIONS:Height 175.0 cm; Width 35.5 cm
Introduction
Jin Nong learned to paint bamboo directly from nature. In his ‘Master Dongxin (Jin Nong)’s Record on Painting Bamboo’, it is noted: “Master Dongxin began learning to paint bamboo only after the age of sixty. He knew nothing of earlier schools of bamboo painting, but planted around a million stalks of tall bamboo to the east and west of his residence, taking them as his sole teacher.” This work, painted when Jin was sixty-six, depicts three stalks of ink bamboo in a sparse, rustic manner, with branches and leaves rendered in calligraphic brushstrokes. Both brushwork and composition are strikingly simple, exuding an archaic elegance. The three lines of regular-script verse at the upper left are dark and robust, upright yet varied. The calligraphy is resonant and weighty, while the bamboo appears fresh and graceful—uniting age and delicacy, weight and lightness, antiquity and charm in a single image, brimming with literati taste.
The scroll passed through the collections of Qing seal carver He Kunyu, Republican-era poet Su Yuanrui, and modern art collector Qian Jingtang. The title label was inscribed by modern seal carver and archaeologist Chu Songchuang, and modern connoisseur Wu Hufan.
