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Follow the bird’s upturned gaze from its low rock to the dark lotus leaf drooping on its long stalk, across a wide stretch of bare paper.
The Art Institute dates this scroll 1697 and attributes it to Zhu Da, which means it thinks the painting is probably his. A single water bird stands on a low rock and stretches its neck toward a lotus leaf hanging on a long, bending stalk; nearly everything else is bare paper. The Art Institute notes that Zhu Da’s highly individual style was especially influential among later Shanghai painters, such as Ren Yi.
Hanging scroll; ink on paper · 95.6 × 37.5 cm · Art Institute of Chicago · Chinese painting: Qing
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Details and source
- Museum title
- Lotus and Waterfowl
- Artist
- Attributed to Zhu Da 朱耷 (Chinese, 1626-c.1705)
- Date
- Qing dynasty (1644–1911), 1697
- Medium
- Hanging scroll; ink on paper
- Dimensions
- 95.6 × 37.5 cm (37 5/8 × 14 3/4 in.)
- Credit line
- Buckingham Fund
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Art Institute of Chicago
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.




