With a few expressive brushstrokes, the painter has thrown the gnarled, almost dead trunk of an old plum tree onto the paper. The plum, already blossoming at the end of winter, may be understood here as a metaphor for the country and its hopes, suffering under Western power politics and internal struggles. The impetuous, unadorned brushstroke with which the painter has almost carelessly sketched the tree trunk is matched by the hard, almost rough handwriting of his title inscription and signature at lower left. Even the seal he had cut out shows the same archaic power and immediacy.
Xie Zhu, professor of Chinese painting at the Shanghai School of Art, is considered an important painter of the 'Shanghai School', which represented the progressive direction in Chinese painting of the early 20th century. He was particularly famous for his expressive style of flower painting (xieyi), in which he combined the calligraphicpower of ink with a strong palette. Together with other renowned artists of the Shanghai School such as Zhang Daqian (1899–1983) and Wu Hufan (1894–1968), he was accepted into the Society for Calligraphy and Painting on the West Mountain (Xishan) in Wuxi, founded in 1920.