Shen Zhou’s chicken picture page

[The picture page of Shen Zhou’s chicks]

The picture page of the chicks, painted by Shen Zhou in the Ming Dynasty, one of the books of the Sleeping Tour, paper, ink. 28.1 cm vertically and 37.6 cm horizontally
This self-titled seven-character poem: “The fur is half yellow, and he alone chirps to the mother’s side. The day is thousands of years old, and the day should be long until the canal urges the dawn.” Self-know “Shen Zhou”, seal “Qi Nan” Zhu Fangyin, “Bai Shiweng” white Fangyin. The collection seal “Zhu Woan Collection Seal”, “Zhi Chi”, “Kun Wang Cheng Xian Painting Seal”, etc., and the monogram on the lower right
From the self-inscription, the painter expressed concern about the half-old chick and always tweeted to find his mother. How can he bear the responsibility of urging the dawn when he grows up? It is not difficult to see that the painter has expressed his wish to expect future generations to become successful as soon as possible through the chicken picture
The composition of this painting is simple, and it is a chick with freehand brushwork. Its back feathers are rendered in moist ink, and its body outline is outlined in simple ink lines. Although it is freehand brushwork, it can still take into account the three-dimensional sense of objects. The chicken’s wings are written in light ink with a fine pen, and the angle and proportion are properly matched. Although the subject matter of the whole painting is simple, the pen rhyme is restrained and vivid, and the young body of the chick is fully displayed through ink. This work is the representative work of Shen Zhou’s painting on the theme of chicken. At this time, Shen Zhou has completely got rid of the exquisite painting style of Yuan people blindly imitating the Song Dynasty, but has really integrated his mind into the pen, and reached the realm of vivid writing.