Birds of Paradies in a Loquat Tree

Being a painter, collector, teacher and organizer of art-related activities, Jin Cheng was one of the most prominent Chinese artists of the inter-war period. This picture was created in the last year of his life, during the Flower Festival, i. e. in the second month of the lunar calendar. The painting is almost entirely filled with several branches of a loquat tree bearing dense foliage and yellow fruit, where three red birds have found refuge. The technique is at once meticulous and novel, achieving good impression of volume and plasticity. By comparison, the very life-like rendering of the trees and leaves, the bulbous bodies of the birds look a bit stiff. It might show some Japanese influence, since the artist travelled abroad repeatedly.