Artwork Page for Fish and Rocks

Details / Information for Fish and Rocks

Fish and Rocks

魚石圖

mid- to late 1600s

Bada Shanren 八大山人

(Chinese, 1626–1705)
Culture
China, Qing dynasty (1644-1911)
Medium
Handscroll; ink on paper
Measurements
Painting: 29.6 x 158.4 cm (11 5/8 x 62 3/8 in.)
Credit Line
John L. Severance Fund 1953.247
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
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Did You Know?

After each poem, Bada Shanren used his so-called jixingyin seal 屐形印, which resembles the impression of a shoe on soft mud.

Description

Bada Shanren, also called Zhu Da, a 17th-century painter who rejected conventions in favor of an individual, personal expression, is known for his unorthodox compositions of fish, flowers, birds, and rocks. Fish in his paintings are often looking upward toward heaven, swimming in a pond of undefined space.

As a member of the Ming imperial family, Zhu Da lost his princely status and hid in a monastery when the Manchus, foreigners from the north, established the Qing dynasty in 1644. This scroll may have some autobiographical meaning, representing fish as leftover subjects (yimin) who lived in a void, having lost their roles in life after the fall of the dynasty.
Horizontally long handscroll with blotchy dabs and streaks of ink sparsely suggesting a scene of two fish among rocks, with Chinese text and red seals interspersed throughout (see "Inscriptions"). The fish cluster, facing opposite directions, in the lower center, one half the size of the other. Left, many black and grey dabs suggest clustered rocks. Right, two larger rocks spread out, one with spiked circles, like flowers, at its side.

Fish and Rocks

mid- to late 1600s

Bada Shanren

(Chinese, 1626–1705)
China, Qing dynasty (1644-1911)

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