Bamboo and Rock

A native of Kunshan, Jiangsu province, Xia Chang has been best known for his bamboos in ink. Down the ages, scholar-officials often identified themselves with the bamboo through painting for its association with resolution, humility and endurance in a tradition started by Wen Tong of the Northern Song. By the Ming dynasty, Wang Fu devised a new compositional approach that gives prominence to bamboos in a landscape with multiple perspectives. This was readily modelled on by Xia Chang as can be seen in some of his extant works. By comparison, Xia’s bamboos contrast more starkly in ink tones and tend to be more two-dimensional especially for his rocks. Although falling short of rivalling Wang Fu by certain Ming standards, Xia Chang was well received in as far away as Korea, Japan and Western Liang, where his bamboos were worth a fortune.

With the protruding nodal rings and the leaves in clusters of either two or three, the bamboos are characteristic of the painter and in turn Wang Fu. The distance between the groves is suggested by dissimilar ink tones while gusts from the left by sharply folded leaves. The rhythmic and convincing portrayal and composition are exactly the defining features of Xia’s late-year works. Although undated, the painting is believed to be produced sometime between 1452 and 1457 when the painter was Vice-Chamberlain for Ceremonials, a position that can be read from a seal impressed under the inscribed painting title in the upper left corner.