ZHANG DAQIAN (1899-1983)
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Modern China Mountains in China Alps
Chronology : 1940-1949 1947 1948 1965 1967 1968 1982
See also : Modern China Mountains in China Alps
Chronology : 1940-1949 1947 1948 1965 1967 1968 1982
1944 Tang Woman
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.
In 1953, while in Argentina, Zhang executes a second version 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 sold for HK $ 66M by Sotheby's on October 7, 2014, lot 1518.
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.
In 1953, while in Argentina, Zhang executes a second version 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 sold for HK $ 66M by Sotheby's on October 7, 2014, lot 1518.
1947 Lotus and Mandarin Ducks
2011 SOLD for HK$ 190M by Sotheby'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.
This double theme of lotus and ducks is very rare 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. Its composition is less legible : the birds partially hidden behind the stems no longer constitute a focusing point of the image.
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.
This double theme of lotus and ducks is very rare 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. Its composition is less legible : the birds partially hidden behind the stems no longer constitute a focusing point of the image.
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.
1949 Quiet Autumn on a Sichuan River
2022 for sale on October 8 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 will be sold by Sotheby's on October 8, 2022, lot 3164. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
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 will be sold by Sotheby's on October 8, 2022, lot 3164. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1965 Snowy Mountains in Switzerland
2016 SOLD for RMB 165M by Poly
Zhang Daqian leaves mainland China after the Second World War for political reasons. This great connoisseur of Chinese graphic arts now travels a lot.
In Brazil where he settled in 1953 or during his frequent visits to the Swiss Alps, he discovered landscapes that do not exist in China. He developed in the mid-1960s an entirely new pictorial style based on splashes of colors to express from memory this new sensory experience with a spontaneity of execution inspired by the Action Painting.
For these views, Zhang sometimes uses very large formats. On December 4, 2016, Poly sold as lot 2030 for RMB 165M an ink and colors on silk 173 x 344 cm on the theme of the Swiss snowy mountain.
This artwork realized in 1965 is one of the first of this new phase in the art of Zhang. The horizon reveals the mountain atmosphere with twin peaks licked by clouds but the foreground is a study of colors close to abstraction from where the drawing is absent.
In Brazil where he settled in 1953 or during his frequent visits to the Swiss Alps, he discovered landscapes that do not exist in China. He developed in the mid-1960s an entirely new pictorial style based on splashes of colors to express from memory this new sensory experience with a spontaneity of execution inspired by the Action Painting.
For these views, Zhang sometimes uses very large formats. On December 4, 2016, Poly sold as lot 2030 for RMB 165M an ink and colors on silk 173 x 344 cm on the theme of the Swiss snowy mountain.
This artwork realized in 1965 is one of the first of this new phase in the art of Zhang. The horizon reveals the mountain atmosphere with twin peaks licked by clouds but the foreground is a study of colors close to abstraction from where the drawing is absent.
1965 Ancient Temples amidst Clouds
2017 SOLD for HK$ 102M by Christie's
Zhang Daqian began by being the best and most knowledgeable copyist of the Chinese graphic art from all periods. His moving to the vicinity of Sao Paulo in 1954 opens to him the landscapes of the world and the contact with the artistic avant-gardes. He meets Picasso in Antibes in 1956.
The mogu is a very old technique that was already practiced under the Tang, based on the observation that graphic figuration can be obtained by wash without a drawing.
Zhang brings new ideas through the use of splashes in superimposed layers for creating rare colors. In 1965 he experiments his new technique now close to abstraction with varied themes : landscapes, lotus.
Beside the Swiss sceneries, other paintings evoke the ancient China by their title and by the insertion at the completion of the creative process of small scattered houses according to the traditional style of drawing.
Splendor of the Peak, ink and color on silk 172 x 90 cm, was sold for HK $ 34M by Christie's on November 26, 2016. With a provenance from the Mei Yun Tang collection, Ancient Temples amidst Clouds, ink and color on gold paper of same size, was sold for HK $ 68M by Sotheby's on May 31, 2011 and for HK$ 102M by Christie's on May 30, 2017, lot 8001.
The mogu is a very old technique that was already practiced under the Tang, based on the observation that graphic figuration can be obtained by wash without a drawing.
Zhang brings new ideas through the use of splashes in superimposed layers for creating rare colors. In 1965 he experiments his new technique now close to abstraction with varied themes : landscapes, lotus.
Beside the Swiss sceneries, other paintings evoke the ancient China by their title and by the insertion at the completion of the creative process of small scattered houses according to the traditional style of drawing.
Splendor of the Peak, ink and color on silk 172 x 90 cm, was sold for HK $ 34M by Christie's on November 26, 2016. With a provenance from the Mei Yun Tang collection, Ancient Temples amidst Clouds, ink and color on gold paper of same size, was sold for HK $ 68M by Sotheby's on May 31, 2011 and for HK$ 102M by Christie's on May 30, 2017, lot 8001.
1967 Temple at the Mountain Peak
2021 SOLD for HK$ 210M by Christie's
Zhang Daqian found a quiet shelter when he moved to the vicinity of Sao Paolo. The cultural links with his home country were nevertheless broken. Even his frequent travels had to exclude the Continental China.
His lush Garden of the Eight Virtues is an attempt to maintain a spirit of Chinese contemplation in his exile in the attire of an elderly scholar. From bottom to upwards, he looks at the lake, the pavilions on the shore, the towering imaginary mountains layered with forest, and the sky. In these conditions this former traditionalist develops an unprecedented pictural style, although he indulges in stating Tang and Song influences.
Ancient Temples amidst Clouds, ink and colors on gold paper 172 x 90 cm painted in 1965, is typical of the new style. The mountain is an overlapping splash of saturated twilight green and blue while the other sections are neat drawings. The buildings scattered atop come from his imagination, symbolizing the link to heavens operated by the monks. This hanging scroll was sold for HK $ 102M by Christie's in 2017.
Temple at the Mountain Peak looks like a remake of Ancient Temples amidst Clouds. It was painted for the use of a friend in 1967 in the same techniques but smaller size, 128 x 63 cm. The valley is more detailed but the temples are half hidden and the resplendent sky has been canceled. The artist had it mounted with enameled knobs in cloisonné blue and white.
This piece was sold twice by Christie's : for HK $ 61M from a lower estimate of HK $ 4M on November 30, 2010,, lot 2644., and for HK $ 210M on May 24, 2021, lot 22. The catalogue suggests an inspiration from a trip made in California a few months earlier. This statement may be questioned.
His lush Garden of the Eight Virtues is an attempt to maintain a spirit of Chinese contemplation in his exile in the attire of an elderly scholar. From bottom to upwards, he looks at the lake, the pavilions on the shore, the towering imaginary mountains layered with forest, and the sky. In these conditions this former traditionalist develops an unprecedented pictural style, although he indulges in stating Tang and Song influences.
Ancient Temples amidst Clouds, ink and colors on gold paper 172 x 90 cm painted in 1965, is typical of the new style. The mountain is an overlapping splash of saturated twilight green and blue while the other sections are neat drawings. The buildings scattered atop come from his imagination, symbolizing the link to heavens operated by the monks. This hanging scroll was sold for HK $ 102M by Christie's in 2017.
Temple at the Mountain Peak looks like a remake of Ancient Temples amidst Clouds. It was painted for the use of a friend in 1967 in the same techniques but smaller size, 128 x 63 cm. The valley is more detailed but the temples are half hidden and the resplendent sky has been canceled. The artist had it mounted with enameled knobs in cloisonné blue and white.
This piece was sold twice by Christie's : for HK $ 61M from a lower estimate of HK $ 4M on November 30, 2010,, lot 2644., and for HK $ 210M on May 24, 2021, lot 22. The catalogue suggests an inspiration from a trip made in California a few months earlier. This statement may be questioned.
1968 Mist at Dawn
2021 SOLD for HK$ 215M by Sotheby's
Mist at dawn, splashed ink and color on paper 100 x 140 cm painted in Brazil in 1968, is a pinnacle of abstraction in the art of Zhang Daqian.
Zhang had been much impressed by the Swiss mountains and had a perfect memory of atmospheres and colors. He interprets here the extreme condition of high wind in the mist just before sunrise.
At first glance the result looks like a wandering of ochre flames in front of splashes of dark blue mingled with malachite green powder. By prolonging the inspection, the shape of the mountains and a cluster of clouds are revealed amidst the rare colors of a stormy dawn sky, at the moment when daylight comes out of a dark chaos.
This opus was sold for HK $ 215M by Sotheby's on October 11, 2021, lot 3065. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Zhang had been much impressed by the Swiss mountains and had a perfect memory of atmospheres and colors. He interprets here the extreme condition of high wind in the mist just before sunrise.
At first glance the result looks like a wandering of ochre flames in front of splashes of dark blue mingled with malachite green powder. By prolonging the inspection, the shape of the mountains and a cluster of clouds are revealed amidst the rare colors of a stormy dawn sky, at the moment when daylight comes out of a dark chaos.
This opus was sold for HK $ 215M by Sotheby's on October 11, 2021, lot 3065. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1968 Lake Achensee
2010 SOLD for RMB 100M by China Guardian
Zhang Daqian developed in the mid 1960s his new style of expressing the mountains in color splashes.
In the following years, he goes back to more figuration in a subtle blend of splash and line. A panoramic interpretation 264 x 76 cm of Lake Achensee made in 1968 in ink and colors on silk was sold for RMB 100M by China Guardian on May 17, 2010.
In the following years, he goes back to more figuration in a subtle blend of splash and line. A panoramic interpretation 264 x 76 cm of Lake Achensee made in 1968 in ink and colors on silk was sold for RMB 100M by China Guardian on May 17, 2010.
1969 Yiwulu Mountains
2019 SOLD for HK$ 163M by Sotheby's
Zhang Daqian had fled the Communist China. In his Garden of the Eight Virtues near Sao Paulo, he develops an art inspired both by Expressionism and by traditional Chinese graphic art. He travels and exhibits a lot during this period. In 1968 he is named honorary doctor by a college in Taiwan.
Also in 1968, Zhang leaves Brazil to relocate in California where he meets other exiles, including Zhang Xueliang's daughter with her husband.
Succeeding in 1928 to his father Zhang Zuolin murdered by the Japanese, Zhang Xueliang had been one of the most powerful warlords, operating from Manchuria and nicknamed the Young Marshal. Assigned to residency since 1936 for temporarily bringing Chiang Kai-shek to negotiate with the Communists against the Japanese, he was forced to follow in 1949 the exode of the Kuomintang to Taiwan.
Zhang Zuolin, the Old Marshal, was a poor peasant. The two "Marshals", father and son, loved to locate their origins in the Yiwulu Mountains, one of the most beautiful landscapes of Manchuria. Still stuck in Taiwan, Zhang Xueliang became a refined poet, connoisseur and collector. To inspire his friend Zhang Daqian, he composed a poetic essay on the ever green beauty of his beloved mountain.
On April 2, 2019, Sotheby's sold for HK $ 163M from a lower estimate of HK $ 50M an imaginary view of the Yiwulu Mountains, splashed ink and colors on paper 101 x 196 cm painted in 1969 by Zhang Daqian and dedicated by him to the daughter and son-in-law of Zhang Xueliang, lot 1415.
In a style where a realistic illusion takes precedence over the abstraction that had dominated his landscapes in the previous years, this artwork can be compared with a view of non-located hills under the snows of spring, 68 x 138 cm, painted in the same year, sold for HK $ 42M including premium by Christie's on November 28, 2017.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
Also in 1968, Zhang leaves Brazil to relocate in California where he meets other exiles, including Zhang Xueliang's daughter with her husband.
Succeeding in 1928 to his father Zhang Zuolin murdered by the Japanese, Zhang Xueliang had been one of the most powerful warlords, operating from Manchuria and nicknamed the Young Marshal. Assigned to residency since 1936 for temporarily bringing Chiang Kai-shek to negotiate with the Communists against the Japanese, he was forced to follow in 1949 the exode of the Kuomintang to Taiwan.
Zhang Zuolin, the Old Marshal, was a poor peasant. The two "Marshals", father and son, loved to locate their origins in the Yiwulu Mountains, one of the most beautiful landscapes of Manchuria. Still stuck in Taiwan, Zhang Xueliang became a refined poet, connoisseur and collector. To inspire his friend Zhang Daqian, he composed a poetic essay on the ever green beauty of his beloved mountain.
On April 2, 2019, Sotheby's sold for HK $ 163M from a lower estimate of HK $ 50M an imaginary view of the Yiwulu Mountains, splashed ink and colors on paper 101 x 196 cm painted in 1969 by Zhang Daqian and dedicated by him to the daughter and son-in-law of Zhang Xueliang, lot 1415.
In a style where a realistic illusion takes precedence over the abstraction that had dominated his landscapes in the previous years, this artwork can be compared with a view of non-located hills under the snows of spring, 68 x 138 cm, painted in the same year, sold for HK $ 42M including premium by Christie's on November 28, 2017.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
1982 Peach Blossom Spring
2016 SOLD for HK$ 270M by Sotheby's
Zhang Daqian was the most skilled artist of all time, able to imitate and copy up to perfection the great Chinese masters of all dynasties and to develop new techniques of his own. Splashing his paper with layers of transparent paint, he renews the expression of landscapes without reaching abstraction, with hues in perfectly controlled gradients.
Zhang returned to Asia in 1976. He however sees that urbanization is threatening the tranquility of his residence in Taiwan. He reacts as a poet. Made in 1982, Peach blossom spring exposes his grandiose dream of a paradise that can no longer exist. According to the Chinese artistic tradition, he inserts a poem explaining his quest for bliss.
This artwork combining drawing and splash is somehow his artistic legacy in the form of a hanging scroll of very large size 209 x 92 cm. The dream realized with a malachite green pigment is a column of progressive splashes reaching a sumptuous intensity in the top of the image. It is indeed the culmination of Zhang's signature mingles of abstract colors and detailed drawings.
This magnificent burst of color removes up to the edges of the picture a landscape in sharp lines but without details excepted the little boat of a fisherman. At the bottom of the blue green column, the border with the real world is provided by a row of peach trees undertaking to grow their flowering branches upward into the dreamlike sky.
His use of increasingly expressive colors explains the considerable interest of the old master in the art of Zao Wou-ki. Their meeting, highly significant for appreciating the evolution of modern Chinese painting, took place in the following year a few weeks before the death of Zhang.
Peach blossom spring was sold for HK $ 270M from a lower estimate of HK $ 50M by Sotheby's on April 5, 2016, lot 1273.
Zhang returned to Asia in 1976. He however sees that urbanization is threatening the tranquility of his residence in Taiwan. He reacts as a poet. Made in 1982, Peach blossom spring exposes his grandiose dream of a paradise that can no longer exist. According to the Chinese artistic tradition, he inserts a poem explaining his quest for bliss.
This artwork combining drawing and splash is somehow his artistic legacy in the form of a hanging scroll of very large size 209 x 92 cm. The dream realized with a malachite green pigment is a column of progressive splashes reaching a sumptuous intensity in the top of the image. It is indeed the culmination of Zhang's signature mingles of abstract colors and detailed drawings.
This magnificent burst of color removes up to the edges of the picture a landscape in sharp lines but without details excepted the little boat of a fisherman. At the bottom of the blue green column, the border with the real world is provided by a row of peach trees undertaking to grow their flowering branches upward into the dreamlike sky.
His use of increasingly expressive colors explains the considerable interest of the old master in the art of Zao Wou-ki. Their meeting, highly significant for appreciating the evolution of modern Chinese painting, took place in the following year a few weeks before the death of Zhang.
Peach blossom spring was sold for HK $ 270M from a lower estimate of HK $ 50M by Sotheby's on April 5, 2016, lot 1273.
