In a composition that is extremely elegant and also very well-structured, orchids and bamboo are arranged so as to emphasize the garden rock as the center of the picture, placed at the function of the horizontal, vertical, and diagonal pictorial axes. The result is an image of iconic authority, one that contrasts the strength of the bamboo with the fragile beauty of the orchid, both plants symbolic of qualities held dear by the literati class.
In his inscription the artist mentions the early Qing master Wu Li (1632-1718) as his inspiration. This is seen especially in the brushwork, in the thick overlapping strokes used to build form and create texture. Values derived from calligraphy were clearly important to the artist, especially in the strokes used for the leaves of the bamboo, each a single stroke applied as in the clerical style calligraphy with the tip of the brush centered within the stroke.
Gai Qi’s antecedents were from the “western regions,” or Central Asia. His grandfather, a military man who served in the eastern portion of the empire, was granted the surname Gai by the emperor and registered in Songjiang, near modern Shanghai. Gai Qi’s father was also a military man of some standing but the son excelled in poetry and painting from his early youth. Gai Qi became a specialist in figure painting and worked in the styles of such earlier masters as Li Gonglin of the Song, Zhao Mengfu of the Yuan, Tang Yin and Chen Hongshou of the Ming, and Hua Yan of more recent times. Gai’s figure style became very well-known through his block-printed illustrations to the famous eighteenth-century novel Honglou Meng, “Dream of the Red Chamber;” his pale and languorous ladies inspired even the decorators of late Qing porcelains. The present “Bamboo and Orchid” is a more personal statement, one in which he proclaims in both words and images his membership in the long and glorious tradition of literati painting.
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