Crouching Cat

Bada Shanren created several paintings of cats over his career, most of which show the animal sleeping or at rest with tucked legs and tail, closed eyes, and a distinctly humped back. In such works, the stillness of the pose is suggestive of the Chan meditational practices in which Bada engaged as a Buddhist monk.

The cats in these paintings are rendered either in soft outline or rich, moist washes of ink, appearing as single images or with a simple prop, such as a rock, with which they seem to merge into a natural, organic whole. In this unique work, however, the image of a wide-awake, upwardly gazing cat is considerably different in mood, composition, and brushwork. Here, the animal appears as part of a full, natural setting with which it dynamically interacts, and instead of a two-dimensional cutout figure, its body possesses a sense of real physical volume and three-dimensionality. While Bada used shaded tones of wet, layered ink to paint the surrounding landscape, as contrast he employed dry, pale ink to depict the figure of the cat and carefully rendered its face and fur with decisive, linear brushstrokes. This scroll is Bada's latest dated cat painting.