Zheng Jie is better known for using bamboos and epidendrums as a theme.
Where he could have seen eagles living in Yangzhou I don't know? It's a lively energetic work.
He worked as a magistrate in Shandong province. Perhaps there?
Retiring to Yangzhou in his later years and being pestered by fans for paintings in exchange for "gifts" he is said to have put this notice on on his front gate along with a list of prices for each scroll size!
"Gifts and foods are not as good as cash, since what you give me might not necessarily be what I like. If you present cold, hard cash, then my heart swells with joy and everything I paint or write is excellent."
Zheng Jie is regarded as being one of the Yangzhou Eccentrics group.
Some people were "gifting" artists with "tokens of appreciation" by providing rent free housing or rolls of silk or bags of rice or swapping collectibles. One was supposedly to refer to these as gifts.
Being totally honest about how a retired magistrate who painted made money from his art was apparently "eccentric" in 18th China?!
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