Changes

Zhang was born in Neijiang, [[Sichuan province]], and was first taught to paint by his mother. The [[Qing Dynasty]] collapsed when he was 12, and in the tumultuous political changes which followed, his brother, Zhang Shanzi, who supported [[Yuan Shikai]], was forced to flee to Japan. Zhang Daqian then visited his brother several times in Kyoto in 1917-1919, where he also studied Japanese traditional dyeing and other textile arts. Returning to China, Zhang was briefly a Buddhist novice, and then at age 21 moved to [[Shanghai]], where he began formally studying painting under two prominent Shanghai artists. In accordance with traditional Chinese painting training methods, he practiced chiefly through a combination of close copying, and looser imitation, of existent masterpieces. By age 23, in 1922, he had already, perhaps, successfully forged works by [[Shitao]] ([[1642]]-[[1707]]), one of the most celebrated artists of the early Qing Dynasty; even [[Huang Binhong]] ([[1865]]-1955), the greatest Chinese art connoisseur of his time, was fooled, or at least confused, by Zhang's work, and is said to have been quite annoyed.

Zhang was born in Neijiang, [[Sichuan province]], and was first taught to paint by his mother. The [[Qing Dynasty]] collapsed when he was 12, and in the tumultuous political changes which followed, his brother, Zhang Shanzi, who supported [[Yuan Shikai]], was forced to flee to Japan. Zhang Daqian then visited his brother several times in Kyoto in 1917-1919, where he also studied Japanese traditional dyeing and other textile arts. Returning to China, Zhang was briefly a Buddhist novice, and then at age 21 moved to [[Shanghai]], where he began formally studying painting under two prominent Shanghai artists. In accordance with traditional Chinese painting training methods, he practiced chiefly through a combination of close copying, and looser imitation, of existent masterpieces. By age 23, in 1922, he had already, perhaps, successfully forged works by [[Shitao]] ([[1642]]-[[1707]]), one of the most celebrated artists of the early Qing Dynasty; even [[Huang Binhong]] ([[1865]]-1955), the greatest Chinese art connoisseur of his time, was fooled, or at least confused, by Zhang's work, and is said to have been quite annoyed.

Zhang exhibited at a Sino-Japanese exhibit in Tokyo in 1931, and for much of the remainder of the 1930s-40s, became so famous that the contemporary art world in China was often summarized as "Pu in the north, Zhang in the south," referring to [[Pu Xinyu]].

Zhang exhibited at a Sino-Japanese exhibit in Tokyo in 1931, and for much of the remainder of the 1930s-40s, became so famous that the contemporary art world in China was often summarized as "Pu in the north, Zhang in the south," referring to [[Pu Xinyu]]. Zhang spent much of the wartime studying and reproducing works from China's lengthy artistic and cultural history, including trips to [[Dunhuang]] in 1941-1943, and extensive practice in reading and reproducing [[seal script]].

 

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, but to 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 known painting 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.

{{stub}}

{{stub}}