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*''Chinese'': [[張]]大千 ''(Zhāng Dáqiān)''
*''Chinese'': [[張]]大千 ''(Zhāng Dáqiān)''
Zhāng Dáqiān was a prominent Chinese painter, collector, and forger, often called the greatest Chinese art-forger of the 20th century. In addition to selling museums authentic historical works he collected, and genuinely new works he painted and sold as original Zhang Daqian works, Zhang also sold museums numerous forgeries. These included forgeries claiming to date as far back as the [[Tang Dynasty]], which entered the collections of elite museums such as the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], and [[Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]].
Zhāng Dáqiān was a prominent Chinese painter, collector, and forger, often called the greatest Chinese art-forger of the 20th century. In addition to selling museums authentic historical works he collected, and genuinely new works he painted and sold as original Zhang Daqian works, Zhang also sold museums numerous forgeries. These included forgeries claiming to date as far back as the [[Tang Dynasty]], which entered the collections of elite museums such as the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], and [[Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]] (MFA).
==Life & Career==
==Life & Career==
He also collected numerous historical works, including especially works by the masters of the [[Ming Dynasty]], many of which he would then sell to major museums in the West. Through his dealings in both authentic historical works, and his own masterful contemporary pieces, he was able to earn a significant degree of trust from major museums in the West, which then allowed him to begin passing off forgeries. In 1957, he sold to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, through a middleman, a painting he claimed to be a 10th century original by Guan Tong, going so far as to not only artificially age the silk and the like, and to include seals of authentic historical personages to create a plausible line of provenance, but to even match his forgery to a work listed in the ''[[Xuanhe huapu]]'', the [[Song Dynasty]] inventory of the Imperial collections compiled by [[Emperor Huizong]], thus passing it off as a painting known to have existed, and which was now resurfacing. Building on the success of this sale, the following year he sold the museum a painting of [[Vimalakirti]] which he successfully passed off as being a 6th-century original from Dunhuang.
He also collected numerous historical works, including especially works by the masters of the [[Ming Dynasty]], many of which he would then sell to major museums in the West. Through his dealings in both authentic historical works, and his own masterful contemporary pieces, he was able to earn a significant degree of trust from major museums in the West, which then allowed him to begin passing off forgeries. In 1957, he sold to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, through a middleman, a painting he claimed to be a 10th century original by Guan Tong, going so far as to not only artificially age the silk and the like, and to include seals of authentic historical personages to create a plausible line of provenance, but to even match his forgery to a work listed in the ''[[Xuanhe huapu]]'', the [[Song Dynasty]] inventory of the Imperial collections compiled by [[Emperor Huizong]], thus passing it off as a painting known to have existed, and which was now resurfacing. Building on the success of this sale, the following year he sold the museum a painting of [[Vimalakirti]] which he successfully passed off as being a 6th-century original from Dunhuang.
Following the Communist takeover in 1949, Zhang fled to Taiwan, moving from there to Hong Kong, then India, Buenos Aires, and finally to Sao Paolo, where he would remain until the 1970s. Banned from returning to mainland China due to his having been labeled a Guomintang (Nationalist) supporter, he finally relocated to Taiwan in the 1970s, as his health began to decline. While continuing to produce works in historic styles, he also in his late years produced a number of splashed-ink works in a style more contemporaneously popular in postwar Chinese art.
==Legacy==
Though embarrassed for many years by these forgeries in their collections, and thus keeping them hidden away, in 2012, the MFA held an exhibition of Zhang's work, celebrating his skill, and telling his very interesting story.
His scandalous prominence in the art world is such that it has become quite common today for curators and other connoisseurs when considering a Chinese work to ask "could it be by Zhang Daqian?"
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==References==
==References==
*"[http://www.asianartnewspaper.com/article/zhang-daqian Zhang Daqian]," ''Asian Art Newspaper'', 9 April 2012.
*"[http://www.asianartnewspaper.com/article/zhang-daqian Zhang Daqian]," ''Asian Art Newspaper'', 9 April 2012.
*Gallery labels, "Zhang Daqian: Painter, Collector, Forger," Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2012.
[[Category:Artists and Artisans]]
[[Category:Artists and Artisans]]