畫跋 An article about the painting

【作者介紹】

沈周，字啟南，號石田，又號白石翁，長洲（今江蘇吳縣）人。書學黃庭堅，詩學白居易、蘇軾、陸游。筆力挺健而蘊藉，風格沉著渾厚。與唐寅、文徵明、仇英合稱「明四家」。著有《客座新聞》、《石田集》等。

Inside Story

This article explains the reason why Shen Chou decided to paint and what he went through emotionally while he was painting. It all started with the paper given by his brother. He brought lots of paper to Shen Chou and asked him to paint with the paper. Shen Chou was a spontaneous painter it took him four years to use up the paper; sometimes, it could take several times to finish one painting and then added a few strokes several months later. Anyway, Shen Chou expected people not only liked his paintings they must understand how much efforts he had put into the paintings as well.