Zhang Daqian before 1965
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Modern China Zhang Daqian Mountains in China
Chronology : 1940-1949 1947 1948
See also : Modern China Zhang Daqian Mountains in China
Chronology : 1940-1949 1947 1948
Intro
The Gobi desert was a major ordeal in the Silk Road. The city of Dunhuang was developed under the Han to offer the rest for travelers coming from the desert and courage and goods to those who were to enter it.
This particular situation has generated a very strong Buddhist spirituality. For a millennium, from the Wei to the Yuan, pilgrims have dug shrines into the cliff to worship Buddhism. 492 man-made caves have been counted, some of them no larger than a coffin. Away from the civilization centers, quite in the middle of the vast Asia, Dunhuang offers the most extraordinary testimony of ancient Buddhist sculpture and painting.
In modern times, Zhang Daqian permeates his art with the best Yuan, Ming and Qing pictorial traditions. This attitude will be vilified by Western observers after the second world war. Yet it fits perfectly in the spirit of continuity that governs the Chinese art for three millennia.
In 1941, Zhang decides to spend a few months studying the paintings of Dunhuang. Overwhelmed by the quality of the art of the ancients, he stayed two years and seven months. He copied therein on paper or silk 279 frescoes, on the site despite difficult climatic conditions.
In Dunhuang, Tang paintings are wonderful. Zhang admires the variety of the psychological expression attributed to the different personalities of the Buddhist pantheon, necessary to offer to the pious travelers all the subtlety of the message.
This particular situation has generated a very strong Buddhist spirituality. For a millennium, from the Wei to the Yuan, pilgrims have dug shrines into the cliff to worship Buddhism. 492 man-made caves have been counted, some of them no larger than a coffin. Away from the civilization centers, quite in the middle of the vast Asia, Dunhuang offers the most extraordinary testimony of ancient Buddhist sculpture and painting.
In modern times, Zhang Daqian permeates his art with the best Yuan, Ming and Qing pictorial traditions. This attitude will be vilified by Western observers after the second world war. Yet it fits perfectly in the spirit of continuity that governs the Chinese art for three millennia.
In 1941, Zhang decides to spend a few months studying the paintings of Dunhuang. Overwhelmed by the quality of the art of the ancients, he stayed two years and seven months. He copied therein on paper or silk 279 frescoes, on the site despite difficult climatic conditions.
In Dunhuang, Tang paintings are wonderful. Zhang admires the variety of the psychological expression attributed to the different personalities of the Buddhist pantheon, necessary to offer to the pious travelers all the subtlety of the message.
Lotus
1
1943 Red Lotus and Mandarin Ducks
2018 SOLD for HK$ 59M by Christie's
After spending two and a half years from 1941 to 1943 copying ancient figurative art in the Dunhuang Caves, Zhang Daqian is able to create artworks in the widest variety of themes.
On November 27, 2018, Christie's sold for HK $ 59M from a lower estimate of HK $ 30M a scroll in ink and color on paper 165 x 82 cm painted in 1943 on the theme of the lotus, lot 1376.
With its bright red flowers outlined in gold, this artwork is mostly a study of colors. In a bold but balanced composition, another theme appears without seeking a coherence of scales : a small pair of mandarin ducks lying in the background gives the plants a tree-like height. These birds are a symbol of conjugal fidelity.
On November 27, 2018, Christie's sold for HK $ 59M from a lower estimate of HK $ 30M a scroll in ink and color on paper 165 x 82 cm painted in 1943 on the theme of the lotus, lot 1376.
With its bright red flowers outlined in gold, this artwork is mostly a study of colors. In a bold but balanced composition, another theme appears without seeking a coherence of scales : a small pair of mandarin ducks lying in the background gives the plants a tree-like height. These birds are a symbol of conjugal fidelity.
2
1947 Lotus and Mandarin Ducks
2011 SOLD for HK$ 190M by Sotheby's
The 31-month scholar and artistic work of Zhang Daqian in the grottoes of Dunhuang, from 1941 to 1943, have not only helped the Chinese to appreciate their ancient pictorial heritage. Now enjoying a new vision across ages in addition to his flawless technique, Zhang became a leading modern Chinese artist.
This double theme of lotus and ducks is unfrequent in Zhang's art.
A 185 x 95 cm scroll painted in 1947 coming from the Mei Yun Tang collection was sold for HK $ 190M by Sotheby's on May 31, 2011 from a lower estimate of HK $ 15M, lot 4.
Compared with the 1943 example sold for HK $ 59M by Christie's on November 27, 2018, its composition is less readable : the birds partially hidden behind the stems no longer constitute a focusing point of the image.
This double theme of lotus and ducks is unfrequent in Zhang's art.
A 185 x 95 cm scroll painted in 1947 coming from the Mei Yun Tang collection was sold for HK $ 190M by Sotheby's on May 31, 2011 from a lower estimate of HK $ 15M, lot 4.
Compared with the 1943 example sold for HK $ 59M by Christie's on November 27, 2018, its composition is less readable : the birds partially hidden behind the stems no longer constitute a focusing point of the image.
3
1947 set of four scrolls
2013 SOLD for HK$ 80M by Christie's
Zhang Daqian was a talented and prolific artist. His success is also due to his vocation for teaching, which makes him simultaneously varying styles and themes. In 1934, only aged 35, he is a professor at Nanjing University.
His innovative processing of colors follows his scholar work on the frescoes in the ancient caves of Dunhuang. The lotus is a great theme to express this new research.
On May 28, 2013, Christie's sold as a single lot for HK$ 80M from a lower estimate of HK$ 10M a set of four hanging scrolls made in 1947, 154 x 78 cm each, showing lotus in ink and colors, lot 1387.
The various compositions reflect the imagination of the artist, but the color treatment is the most remarkable. The four works are indeed very different, ranging from classical discrete tones to a sumptuous juxtaposition of color washes. In this group of works the ducks did not come.
The most colorful of the four images is very close by its color harmony to a scroll from the same year, 185 x 95 cm, which was sold for HK $ 190M by Sotheby's in 2011.
His innovative processing of colors follows his scholar work on the frescoes in the ancient caves of Dunhuang. The lotus is a great theme to express this new research.
On May 28, 2013, Christie's sold as a single lot for HK$ 80M from a lower estimate of HK$ 10M a set of four hanging scrolls made in 1947, 154 x 78 cm each, showing lotus in ink and colors, lot 1387.
The various compositions reflect the imagination of the artist, but the color treatment is the most remarkable. The four works are indeed very different, ranging from classical discrete tones to a sumptuous juxtaposition of color washes. In this group of works the ducks did not come.
The most colorful of the four images is very close by its color harmony to a scroll from the same year, 185 x 95 cm, which was sold for HK $ 190M by Sotheby's in 2011.
Tang Lady
1
1944
2013 SOLD for RMB 71M by China Guardian
The 31-month scholar and artistic work of Zhang Daqian in the grottoes of Dunhuang, from 1941 to 1943, have not only helped the Chinese to appreciate their ancient pictorial heritage. Now enjoying a new vision across ages in addition to his flawless technique, Zhang became the best modern Chinese artist.
With their precise thin line drawing, the Tang figures are the best mural art in Dunhuang. After copying, Zhang began to imitate them. A heroine named Hong Fu Nu from a novel evoking the Tang dynasty became his inspiration for the ideal woman.
In 1944, Zhang performs a sumptuous portrait of this court woman in an elaborate costume, with bright colors on a background dotted with gold. The flexible expression of the woman is inspired by Ming style. This artwork, 125 x 75 cm including the subframe, was sold for RMB 71M by China Guardian on May 10, 2013.
With their precise thin line drawing, the Tang figures are the best mural art in Dunhuang. After copying, Zhang began to imitate them. A heroine named Hong Fu Nu from a novel evoking the Tang dynasty became his inspiration for the ideal woman.
In 1944, Zhang performs a sumptuous portrait of this court woman in an elaborate costume, with bright colors on a background dotted with gold. The flexible expression of the woman is inspired by Ming style. This artwork, 125 x 75 cm including the subframe, was sold for RMB 71M by China Guardian on May 10, 2013.
2
1953 La Beauté Antique
2014 SOLD for HK$ 66M by Sotheby's
In 1953, while in Argentina, Zhang Daqian executes a replica of his Tang Lady with an almost identical drawing, but without gold and fake frame and in a lighter tone.
This ink and color on paper 135 x 57 cm was cold for HK $ 66M by Sotheby's on October 7, 2014, lot 1518. It is catalogued with a title in French, La Beauté Antique, following an exhibition in Paris in 1956.
This ink and color on paper 135 x 57 cm was cold for HK $ 66M by Sotheby's on October 7, 2014, lot 1518. It is catalogued with a title in French, La Beauté Antique, following an exhibition in Paris in 1956.
1948 Landscape after Wang Ximeng
2022 SOLD for HK$ 370M by Sotheby's
Zhang Daqian permeated his art with the best antique pictorial traditions, including the blue and green paintings from the Sui, Tang and Song. This practice was vilified by Western observers as plagiarism after the second world war. Yet it fits perfectly in the spirit of continuity that governs the Chinese art for three millennia.
A landscape of rivers and mountains after Wang Ximeng painted in January and February 1948 is a fair example of a transformation performed by Zhang while keeping the spirit and the style of an antique painting. It had not been shown in public since 1983.
Wang was a prodigy artist under the Northern Song dynasty who was taught and commissioned by the Huizong emperor himself. He died in 1119 CE at 23 years old. The unique artwork attributed to him is a handscroll 52 x 1200 cm painted in ink and blue and green colors on silk when he was not yet 18 years old. It is now kept in the Palace Museum in Beijing.
The work by Zhang was to transfer the significant elements of that masterpiece into a 134 x 73 cm hanging scroll of a similar technique. He did not keep the original composition, changing the multi point classical scenery into a modern perspective from a shore while preserving the vastness of the mountain range.
He led the perfection into even copying the seagulls and geese half hidden in the waves. Zhang's make is in fine line and exquisite color including gold flecks that shimmer in the sunlight. The distant mountains are colored in Mogu style.
Landscape after Wang Ximeng was sold for HK $ 370M by Sotheby's on April 30, 2022, lot 3073. Please watch the video shared by the auction house, providing a significant juxtaposition of elements of the antique and modern pictures.
A landscape of rivers and mountains after Wang Ximeng painted in January and February 1948 is a fair example of a transformation performed by Zhang while keeping the spirit and the style of an antique painting. It had not been shown in public since 1983.
Wang was a prodigy artist under the Northern Song dynasty who was taught and commissioned by the Huizong emperor himself. He died in 1119 CE at 23 years old. The unique artwork attributed to him is a handscroll 52 x 1200 cm painted in ink and blue and green colors on silk when he was not yet 18 years old. It is now kept in the Palace Museum in Beijing.
The work by Zhang was to transfer the significant elements of that masterpiece into a 134 x 73 cm hanging scroll of a similar technique. He did not keep the original composition, changing the multi point classical scenery into a modern perspective from a shore while preserving the vastness of the mountain range.
He led the perfection into even copying the seagulls and geese half hidden in the waves. Zhang's make is in fine line and exquisite color including gold flecks that shimmer in the sunlight. The distant mountains are colored in Mogu style.
Landscape after Wang Ximeng was sold for HK $ 370M by Sotheby's on April 30, 2022, lot 3073. Please watch the video shared by the auction house, providing a significant juxtaposition of elements of the antique and modern pictures.
later 1940s Copy of a Juran's Landscape
2016 SOLD for RMB 103M by China Guardian
Juran was a landscape painter in the 10th century CE at the court of the Southern Tang in Nanjing when they were overwhelmed by the Northern Song.
His 145 x 55 cm hanging scroll in ink on silk Storied Mountains and Dense Forests is kept at the National Palace Museum in Taipei.
A replica made by Zhang Daqian in the later 1940s, ink and color on paper 170 x 85 cm, was sold for RMB 103M from a lower estimate of RMB 68M by China Guardian on November 12, 2016, lot 724. It is illustrated in the post sale release shared by China Daily.
His 145 x 55 cm hanging scroll in ink on silk Storied Mountains and Dense Forests is kept at the National Palace Museum in Taipei.
A replica made by Zhang Daqian in the later 1940s, ink and color on paper 170 x 85 cm, was sold for RMB 103M from a lower estimate of RMB 68M by China Guardian on November 12, 2016, lot 724. It is illustrated in the post sale release shared by China Daily.
1953 Landscape in Sichuan
2011 SOLD for HK$ 64M by Sotheby's
Zhang Daqian acquired in 1946 a scenery along a riverbank painted nearly 1,000 years earlier by Dong Yuan under the dynasty of the Southern Tang. He deeply admired the processing of nature by the old master. This artwork inspired to Zhang a view of the Jialing river, one of the four major tributaries to the Yangzi Jiang, embedded within an endless succession of peaks as viewed from an airplane.
The next three years were busy for the artist, guiding the preparatory work for the Shanghai Art Museum, holding many exhibitions in Europe and China, concerned with the end of the anti-Japanese war and by the civil war between the Communists ans his friends of the Kuomintang.
In 1949, while preparing to leave mainland China through Hong Kong, he resourced himself in his native Sichuan, a lowland backed with emerald green mountains.
Painted in September of that hectic year, Quiet autumn on a Sichuan river is a hanging scroll 133 x 72 cm in ink and bright colors on paper. It is executed in the follow of the Jialing view in a larger format with the additional refinement of an outlining and shading with ink strokes that imitates Dong Yuan’s graphic style. Zhang rendered the Sichuan atmosphere in the fall as an artist's view without relying back on an actual landscape.
In a bird's eye view the meanders of the river mingle far away with the seas of clouds below the high peaks in a dramatic effect. Lively details include boatmen on the river, two literati on an embankment and low houses nested in the countryside.
Despite traveling the world, Zhang did not part from this scroll until he presented it to a grandson 13 years later. It was sold for HK $ 37M by Sotheby's on October 8, 2022, lot 3164. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Zhang Daqian is also skilled in the classical mogu technique of positioning the color wash without preparatory drawing. Also known as a re-creator of lost works of ancient masters, he brought into his personal art a unique sensuality.
For him the landscape is a sensation of color interpreted from memory. On April 5, 2011, Sotheby's sold for HK $ 64M a spring landscape in the Sichuan mountains, 90 x 45 cm.
This hanging paper scroll was made in 1953 when Zhang was in exile in Argentina. The harmony of blue and green marks the artist's nostalgia for his home region as much as does the sensitive poem at the upper side of the work.
The next three years were busy for the artist, guiding the preparatory work for the Shanghai Art Museum, holding many exhibitions in Europe and China, concerned with the end of the anti-Japanese war and by the civil war between the Communists ans his friends of the Kuomintang.
In 1949, while preparing to leave mainland China through Hong Kong, he resourced himself in his native Sichuan, a lowland backed with emerald green mountains.
Painted in September of that hectic year, Quiet autumn on a Sichuan river is a hanging scroll 133 x 72 cm in ink and bright colors on paper. It is executed in the follow of the Jialing view in a larger format with the additional refinement of an outlining and shading with ink strokes that imitates Dong Yuan’s graphic style. Zhang rendered the Sichuan atmosphere in the fall as an artist's view without relying back on an actual landscape.
In a bird's eye view the meanders of the river mingle far away with the seas of clouds below the high peaks in a dramatic effect. Lively details include boatmen on the river, two literati on an embankment and low houses nested in the countryside.
Despite traveling the world, Zhang did not part from this scroll until he presented it to a grandson 13 years later. It was sold for HK $ 37M by Sotheby's on October 8, 2022, lot 3164. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Zhang Daqian is also skilled in the classical mogu technique of positioning the color wash without preparatory drawing. Also known as a re-creator of lost works of ancient masters, he brought into his personal art a unique sensuality.
For him the landscape is a sensation of color interpreted from memory. On April 5, 2011, Sotheby's sold for HK $ 64M a spring landscape in the Sichuan mountains, 90 x 45 cm.
This hanging paper scroll was made in 1953 when Zhang was in exile in Argentina. The harmony of blue and green marks the artist's nostalgia for his home region as much as does the sensitive poem at the upper side of the work.
1955 Taoist Goddess
2013 SOLD for HK$ 74M by Sotheby's
On May 27, 2013, Sotheby's sold a hanging scroll in ink and color on paper 116 x 65 cm by Zhang Daqian featuring a Taoist goddess for HK$ 74M from a lower estimate of HK$ 15M, lot 7. A draft drawing of this image is dated 1945, two years after he completed his self taught training of copying the Dunhuang murals..
The pretty young Lady is flying over the clouds, accompanied by a phoenix. She quietly raises a basket to the sky with her slim fingers.
This work is not dated by the artist but inscribed by another hand in a titleslip with the date of the eighth lunar month of the yiwei year, 1955 CE.
This date is plausible. Zhang was still making copies in the mid 1950s from his own Dunhuang-style work. A 1953 remake of his portrait of a 1944 Tang Lady was sold for HK$ 66M by Sotheby's on October 7, 2014, lot 1518.
The pretty young Lady is flying over the clouds, accompanied by a phoenix. She quietly raises a basket to the sky with her slim fingers.
This work is not dated by the artist but inscribed by another hand in a titleslip with the date of the eighth lunar month of the yiwei year, 1955 CE.
This date is plausible. Zhang was still making copies in the mid 1950s from his own Dunhuang-style work. A 1953 remake of his portrait of a 1944 Tang Lady was sold for HK$ 66M by Sotheby's on October 7, 2014, lot 1518.
1963 Viewing the Waterfall
2018 SOLD for HK$ 64M by Christie's
Partisan of the Kuomintang, Zhang Daqian exiles in 1949. In the following years he travels a lot while also seeking a lasting home. However he is not a cosmopolitan artist : his sensibility and his themes are Chinese forever.
In 1953 he buys a piece of land near Sao Paulo to install his Garden of the Eight Virtues. He is exhausted by this task and his eyesight drops. In his landscape paintings the outlines of the mountains become thick and hard.
Zhang is not only the best connoisseur of two thousand years of Chinese graphic art. He is also a researcher of new styles. On May 29, 2018, Christie's sold for HK $ 64M Viewing the waterfall, hanging scroll 134 x 68 cm in ink and colors, lot 1379.
The very steep mountain looks like the Rio Sugarloaf but it may be just a coincidence. By another chance it is also close to the Maoist mountains by Li Keran. It is in fact deeply rooted in the Chinese tradition.
It is dated by the artist in Chinese, twelfth month of the guimao year corresponding to 1963 CE. This landscape could be universal but its summit houses are a typical ancient temple. At the bottom two travelers are confronted with the immensity of nature, one of the most traditional themes in Chinese landscape.
This artwork is one of the earliest examples of the mixing of two techniques that Zhang will practice with great success for twenty years. The waterfall, the characters, the temples are drawn with sharpness. Surfaces that are not used in the narration are diluted in large splashes of blue and green.
There is no doubt that this technique unprecedented in modern art is a reference to the Mogu washes beloved by the Tang. It is perhaps also useful for sparing the weakened eyesight of the artist
In 1953 he buys a piece of land near Sao Paulo to install his Garden of the Eight Virtues. He is exhausted by this task and his eyesight drops. In his landscape paintings the outlines of the mountains become thick and hard.
Zhang is not only the best connoisseur of two thousand years of Chinese graphic art. He is also a researcher of new styles. On May 29, 2018, Christie's sold for HK $ 64M Viewing the waterfall, hanging scroll 134 x 68 cm in ink and colors, lot 1379.
The very steep mountain looks like the Rio Sugarloaf but it may be just a coincidence. By another chance it is also close to the Maoist mountains by Li Keran. It is in fact deeply rooted in the Chinese tradition.
It is dated by the artist in Chinese, twelfth month of the guimao year corresponding to 1963 CE. This landscape could be universal but its summit houses are a typical ancient temple. At the bottom two travelers are confronted with the immensity of nature, one of the most traditional themes in Chinese landscape.
This artwork is one of the earliest examples of the mixing of two techniques that Zhang will practice with great success for twenty years. The waterfall, the characters, the temples are drawn with sharpness. Surfaces that are not used in the narration are diluted in large splashes of blue and green.
There is no doubt that this technique unprecedented in modern art is a reference to the Mogu washes beloved by the Tang. It is perhaps also useful for sparing the weakened eyesight of the artist
