《枝頭香四溢 》
Fragrance 

趙少昂 ——《枝頭香四溢》 

 

趙少昂生平： 

 

趙少昂（1905 - 1998），名恒，字叔儀，廣東番禺人。自十六歲起便師承嶺南畫派大師高奇峰先生習畫，有出藍之譽，善人物走獸、山水風景；尤以花鳥畫揚名國際，可謂「中國花鳥畫第一人」。中國畫以滲透畫家的情意為基礎，趙少昂先生的畫風富有獨特的個性與一種超逸的美感。這是因為他常於觀察自然，創造性地表現了自然世界中的真趣，把自然灌注生命，使其畫作能以意境取勝，為國畫注入了一種新的生命力，這也是他承傳了先師所提出「折衷中西」的理念的具體表現之一。趙少昂先生不但貫徹了先師的主張，還豐富了嶺南畫派的技法，並創立了嶺南藝苑，把嶺南畫派的精神承傳下去。 

 

《枝頭香四溢》闡釋： 

 

這幅畫作為《枝頭香四溢》複本，現收藏於香港文化博物館。畫幅的款式中寫下了「瀟灑淋漓筆，梅花瘦似人，枝頭香四溢，純潔淨無塵。丁卯新秋，少昂於夢萱堂。」配合畫作的結構來看，儘管枝頭散發著香氣四溢的梅花香，畫中的麻雀仍以低頭俯視的姿態下站立在一棵梅花的枝幹上，飄飄乎如遺世獨立。 

 

麻雀嚮往自由，不自由毋寧死；梅花則是高潔孤傲的象徵。這不禁令人猜想趙少昂先生此畫的含意——瘦弱梅此樹喻人﹑梅花寄寓高風亮節﹑麻雀者則為己也。面對舊時社會的無奈與艱苦，不少有志之士都自強不息，奮力成為香氣四溢的梅花，堅忍不拔的精神可敬可泣。趙少昂先生卻早已看破紅塵，人生如一夢，捨盡方為真正的自由，這份精神卻又非有為者之所能及。故此，他以低頭的麻雀喻己，清淨無為，不涉世事。 

 

此外，梅花樹的枝幹是由不同濃淡微墨色所寫成，配搭著前濃後淡的佈置，為畫作透露出微曦的煙光，表達出雨後初晴的景象，加上用筆帶有強勁而不剛烈，收放自如，突顯出淡雅的感覺，猶如君子風度般的展現。 

​

​

Chao Shao-an — “Fragrance” 

 

Chao Shao-an’s Bio: 

 

Chao Shao-an (1905 - 1998), named Heng, was a native of Panyu, Guangdong. Since the age of 16, he studied under Mr. Gao Qifeng, a master of the Lingnan School of painting, and was known for his figures and animals, landscapes, and scenery skills. He can be called “the first person in Chinese flower and bird painting”. Chinese painting is based on the artist’s emotion, and Mr. Chao Shao-an’s style is rich in a unique personality and a sense of transcendent beauty. This is because he is constantly observing nature, creatively expressing the genuine interest of the natural world, and infusing nature with life, so that his paintings can win by their mood, injecting new vitality into Chinese painting, which is also one of the concrete expressions of his inheritance of his predecessor’s philosophy of “eclecticism between East and West”. Mr. Chao Shao-an carried out his predecessor's ideas and enriched the Lingnan school of painting techniques and founded the Lingnan Art Studio to pass on the spirit of the Lingnan school of painting. 

 

The interpretation of “Fragrance”: 

 

This painting on display Fragrance is now in the collection of the Hong Kong Heritage Museum. The painting’s inscription reads, “The plum blossoms are thin and human-like, the branches are fragrant, pure and clean. Shao-an at Mengxuan Hall in the new autumn of Dingmao.” In line with the structure of the painting, despite the fragrance of the plum blossoms on the branches, the sparrow in the painting still stands on the branch of plum blossom with its head bowed down, not paying much attention to it. 

 

The sparrow aspires to freedom and would rather die than be accessible, while the plum blossom symbolizes nobility and solitude. This makes one wonder about the meaning of Chao Shao-an's painting - the thin plum tree is a metaphor for people, the plum flower is a symbol of nobility, and the sparrow is a symbol of himself. In the face of the helplessness and hardships of the old society, many aspirants struggled to become the fragrant plum blossom, and their perseverance was admirable. Mr. Chao Shao-an, however, has long since seen through the red dust. Life is like a dream, and true freedom is only achieved by giving up all. Therefore, he uses the metaphor of a sparrow with its head bowed, pure and untouched by the world. 

 

In addition, the branches of the plum blossom tree are painted in different shades of ink, and the arrangement of the front and back shades of ink reveals the smoky light of the dawn, expressing the scene of the first sunrise after the rain.