Blissful Old Age (Landscape in the Style of Zhu Da)

Maker(s)
Artist: Zhang Daqian 張大千 (China, 1899-1983)
Historical period(s)
Modern period, Spring 1940
Medium
Ink on paper
Dimensions
H x W (image): 131.8 x 52 cm (51 7/8 x 20 1/2 in)
Geography
China
Credit Line
Purchase ā€” Charles Lang Freer Endowment
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art Collection
Accession Number
F1994.2
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Painting
Type

Hanging scroll

Keywords
China, landscape, Modern period (1912 - present)
Provenance

Yan Weicong, presented by the artist [1]

From about 1981
Rongbao Zhai, Peking, purchased from Yan Weicong in about 1981 [2]

From 1987
Freer Gallery of Art, purchased at auction, Christie's, New York, 1987 [3]

Notes:

[1] See Fu Shen, Challenging the Past: the Paintings of Chang Dai-chien (University of Washington Press, 1991) (according to Curatorial Note 3 in the object record).

[2] Rongbao Zhai is a shop in Peking (see Curatorial Note 3 in the object record for a full explanation of this transaction.

[3] Transferred to the Freer Permanent Collection from the Freer Study Collection on March 17, 1994 (see Curatorial Note 1, Elizabeth F. Duley, March 25, 1994, in the object record).

Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)

Yan Weicong
Christie's (New York)
Rongbao Zhai

Label

Zhang Daqian painted this hanging scroll in 1940, when he was most directly influenced by the works of Bada Shanren. Having started his own collection of Bada's painting and calligraphy, Zhang had also begun to create both copies and forgeries of existing works by Bada, and to paint new works in the style of that earlier master. In this scroll, for example, Zhang combined elements from two different originals belonging to two different collections. Closely following Bada Shanren's characteristically dry and coarse brushwork, and careful to retain the proportions and detail of the original models, Zhang borrowed the overall landscape composition of the painting from an album leaf by Bada now in the Palace Museum, Beijing. However, he elongated the composition vertically to better suit the hanging scroll format and copied the inscription in the upper right corner of the painting from the title page of a second album in the Sen-oku Hakko kan museum, Kyoto.

Published References
  • Fu Shen, Jan Stuart. Challenging the Past: The Paintings of Chang Dai-Chien. Exh. cat. Washington and Seattle. cat. 18, pp. 131-133.
Collection Area(s)
Chinese Art
Web Resources
Whistler's Neighborhood
Google Cultural Institute
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