Li Fangying’s Fish Picture Axis

[Li Fangying’s Fish Painting Axis]

The Fish Painting Axis, Qing Dynasty, Li Fangying’s painting, paper, ink, 123.5 cm vertically and 60 cm horizontally
The title on the right side of the picture: “Thirty six scales and a deep hole, the rain master Feng Bo has no right. The sound of the shaddock in the south and north is loud, and the spray of foam is high. The green fields are everywhere. Li Fangying in the Qingjiang River.” The seal is “the pen of the Qingjiang River”, Bai Wenyin, and “Qiu Zhong”, Zhu Wenyin
The Painting of Fish is Li Fangying’s masterpiece. In the painting, the spring water is blooming, and the jubilant carp rush across the river. They either rush into the bottom of the water, or roam on the water, or shake their heads and tails, or stretch their fins and jump. After the cold winter, they enjoy the joy brought by the spring water recovery. The picture is vivid and interesting. Although the author has no background, he can make people see the beautiful spring scenery in the south of the Yangtze River through the gentle spring water, and achieve the artistic effect that the brush can’t reach and the scenery is outside the painting
According to the style of the picture and the inscription, we can infer that this picture is the work of Li Fangying after his dismissal (the 13th year of Qianlong, 1748). In the painting, the author draws up a picture of himself as a fish, which means that he has been trapped in a cage for a long time and finally has to return to nature. It shows the author’s yearning for free life and his character and sentiment. Scholars in the Ming and Qing dynasties often expressed their feelings directly with the theme of “Four Gentlemen”, expressing their elegant and noble conduct. Li Fangying is also good at painting plum, but in his later years, he chose fish as the theme to express his thoughts and feelings, jumped out of the barrier of literati painting, with novel ideas, expanded the expression field and aesthetic interest of literati painting, and his innovation is also showing the outstanding contribution of “Yangzhou Eight Monsters” to painting
In terms of image location management, this picture is also different. Five swimming fish with different postures form an inverse “S” curve. The fish head and fish tail echo each other, which not only has the aesthetic sense of form, but also renders the atmosphere of leaping out. The inscription on the right is consistent to the end, and the font is bold and forceful, which enhances the overall sense of the picture, thus becoming a perfect and unified structure of poetry, calligraphy and painting.