Rongbaozhai Painting Spectrum: (12) Landscape Section: Landscape Section

Author: Zhang Daqian
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-05-01
Features: Zhang Daqian (1899–1983), also known as Ai, Jili, or Daqian, styled Dajian, and styled as "Dajian Jushi" or simply "Zhuiren Zhang Daqian." Born in 1901, died in 1984, native of Neijiang, Sichuan. Zhang Daqian was influenced and guided by his mother, who was skilled in painting, and his second brother Zhang Shanzi, known for his tiger paintings and self-styled "Tiger Maniac." He studied poetry, calligraphy, and painting under master teachers such as Zeng Nongren and Li Meidan. In addition to copying famous works from past generations, he traveled extensively through famous mountains and rivers, learning from nature itself. Through hard dedication, he achieved outstanding artistic success. In his youth, he was already renowned alongside his second brother Zhang Shanzi. In his twenties, he studied dyeing and weaving in Japan. Upon returning to China, he became fascinated with Buddhism and even went to Tian Tong Temple in Ningbo to "become a monk," wanting to become a Buddhist monk. It is said that he feared having nine incense marks burned on his head and thus left his master, Hong Fa Dajushi, to return to the real world. In 1932, his family moved to Wangshiyuan in Suzhou, where he devoted himself to painting. After 1940, he spent two and a half years systematically organizing, numbering, and copying the caves of the Dunhuang Grottoes in China, enriching his painting techniques. In 1948, he moved to Hong Kong, later traveling to India, France, Brazil, and other countries. In 1978, he settled in Taiwan and passed away there in April 1984 at the age of 84. Today, his former residence in Taiwan, "Maya Jing She," is now the "Zhang Daqian Memorial Hall."
Zhang Daqian was a genius painter whose creations "encompassed the strengths of all styles and combined the richness of the northern and southern schools." He integrated literati painting, literary painting, court painting, and folk art. He excelled in all aspects of Chinese painting—figures, landscapes, flowers and birds, insects and fish, and beasts—both in meticulous brushwork and freehand techniques, achieving mastery in every field. His poetry was sincere and unrestrained, his calligraphy bold and elegant, with an exterior gentleness and an interior strength, uniquely distinctive.
In his early and middle years, Zhang Daqian primarily focused on copying and imitating ancient works, spending most of his life and energy studying works from the Qing Dynasty back to the Sui and Tang dynasties, meticulously researching their styles, progressing from copying to imitation and eventually to forgery. His artistic style underwent several transformations over time. In his later years, after extensive exploration, at the age of 57, he created the "splashing ink and color" technique, which was a development of the Tang Dynasty's "splashing ink" method, incorporating the principles of color and light from Western painting to create a new style of landscape painting. The remarkable aspect of his technique was that it always maintained the traditional characteristics of Chinese painting while creating a semi-abstract realm where ink and color intertwined.
Before the age of 30, his style was described as "fresh, refined, and elegant." By the age of 50, it had evolved into "magnificent and extraordinary," and after 60, it reached a state of "vast, profound, and serene." In his 80s, his temperament became mellow, his brushwork simplified, and his ink light and sparse. His unique "splashing ink" landscapes were magnificent and awe-inspiring, blending harmoniously with the universe, enhancing the emotional impact of his works and the overall effect of his paintings.