PROVENANCE:

The Birds series could be Lin Fengmian's most popular series of works; they are reprinted on all kinds of publications. Lin's Birds are were usually easily painted with inks showing a lonely little bird standing on a branch, some of the scholars consider these paintings are just ordinary paintings, the others thinks that they some how reveal the independence, unrestraint, grief, indignation and misanthropy of the artist. The Composition in this painting is clean, simple and strong; the character at the right of the picture looks perverse and persisted, such innocence and interesting form shows the ar tist's true self in misfortunes.

This piece was executed in 1989 when Lin Fengmian first visited Taiwan, he gave it to a friend in the art circle of Taiwan as a gift to express his gratitude for friends' supports on the exhibition arrangements.