Rooster and Grapevine

Executed in plain black ink on paper, this painting in hanging scroll format depicts a long-tailed rooster and fruiting grapevine. Seemingly stepping forward toward the viewer, with its left leg raised mid-step, the rooster turns its head to its right (viewer’s left) with beak opened, as if emitting a cry. Behind the rooster, a fruiting grapevine at the upper right of the composition, with stems and foliage rendered in washes of light gray and grapes in darker black ink, includes an arching branch that stretches leftward, mimicking the curve of the rooster’s dark tail. Two square red intaglio seal appear in the lower right corner of the painting.