The second bamboo work in the collection — a companion to Bamboo and Moon (404) and further evidence that Sidney's engagement with the East Asian ink painting tradition was sustained rather than accidental. Where 404 shows two or three culms closely observed, this work presents a small grove of bamboo stalks at varying distances and angles — some leaning slightly, some strictly vertical — creating a more complex spatial arrangement against the same luminous white ground.
The technical vocabulary is identical to 404: the bamboo culms are rendered in gray-black ink wash, each segment painted individually with a single loaded brushstroke, the internodal rings marked darker. From each node, small bright green marks emerge — new shoots or leaf clusters, rendered in vivid watercolor green that contrasts sharply with the gray-black of the main stalks. This contrast between the ink-wash structure and the watercolor color accents is the characteristic mark of Sidney's bamboo technique.
At center right, a single yellow circle — the sun or moon — floats at the same height as the upper sections of the tallest stalk. The placement is deliberate and formal, echoing the solar element in 404 with the same restraint: one color mark, round, warm, positioned in relation to the bamboo rather than to the sky.
At upper left, two small pale blue-gray cloud forms — barely visible — complete the atmospheric suggestion without elaborating it. The composition remains essentially monochromatic except for the green shoots and the yellow sun.
Two bamboo works in the collection confirms this was a mode Sidney returned to — not a single experiment but a practice. The question of where he learned this vocabulary remains open.