The Pure Recluse of Bamboo Creek

Ni Zan was an exceptionally popular painter and his style was often imitated by other scholar-artists both during his lifetime and in the centuries that followed. An early example of such imitation, this small handscroll bears a forged inscription of Ni Zan at right, together with a false date of 1363. With only a few minor discrepancies, the inscription contains the same poem that was written by Qian Weishan (see F1915.36d), only here the first line reads, "I often sketch bamboo to give to friends," and the forger has Ni Zan present himself as the author.