Hidden Valley, after Guo Xi

Object Details

• Artist

  Zhang Daqian 張大千 (China, 1899-1983)

• Description

  A mountainous landscape, primarily in muted colors from light gray to dark grayish-brown. The central area is shrouded in mist. Below this area, in the foreground, rocks are covered with flowering bushes. The rocks rising above the mist are bare except for a few scattered woods. Two waterfalls cascade down the rocks. Along the right side of the composition is an inscription consisting of two vertical lines of Chinese characters. Beneath this are two seals

• Inscriptions

  1. (AMS Foundation Catalogue Information) Two vertical lines of Chinese characters along right side of composition. Beneath this are two seals of the artist. According to Trudi Kawami (3/26/1999), the upper seal reads "Daiqian wei yin danian" and the lower seal appears to be a very stylized rendering of "Daqian haofu". According to Laura Whitman of Christie's Chinese Paintings Department (3/29/1999), the inscription is a descriptive poem of the landscape; there is no dedication and the painting was done in the Ren Yin Year, or 1962.

• Label

  This large and impressive landscape painting was created in the early 1960s, which was a transitional period in the stylistic development of the 20th century master Chang Dai-chien. It was during this period that Chang emerged from more strictly traditional styles of painting to create a new style of landscape depiction, which he called "splashed ink and color". This innovative approach exerted a profound influence both on Chang's contemporaries and on the subsequent generation of landscape painters in China, and is the style for which Chang Dai-chien is best known. The proposed gift from the Sackler Foundation fully represents this important creative turning point in the artist's career.

  Despite the innovative and strongly individualistic qualities of his later work, Chang Dai-chien himself always claimed to derive his inspiration from the great traditions of the past. In his lengthy inscription on this painting, for example, Chang states that he has merely allowed his creative mood to reinterpret a famous painting by the Northern Song dynasty master Guo Xi (ca. 1001-ca. 1090) called Hidden Valley, which is now in the collection of the Shanghai Museum. While many of the basic compositional elements and details of brushwork do in fact derive from that ancient master, it is Chang's fresh and novel approach that most fundamentally defines the character of this work.

• Provenance

  1987-1999

  Columbia University in the City of New York, New York, NY [1]

  1999

  Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, transferred from Columbia University, in the City of New York, New York, NY [2]

  From 1999

  Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, gift of the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation

  Notes:

  [1] The Memorandum dated March 5, 1999 indicates that 9 objects’ status were resolved on that date. As per that Agreement: “Columbia University owned the works and had loaned them to the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation in October 1987. Upon signing the Agreement, Columbia waived and relinquished any and all rights, title and interest in and to these works. Ownership of the works has been effectively transferred to the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation.” See Memorandum from March 5, 1999, copy in object file.

  [2] See note 1.

• Collection

  Arthur M. Sackler Collection

• Exhibition History

  The Arts of China (November 18, 1990 to September 7, 2014)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Columbia University in the City of New York

  Arthur M. Sackler Foundation (founded 1965)

• Origin

  China

• Credit Line

  Gift of The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation

• Type

  Painting

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1960s

• Name

  Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, Columbia University in the City of New York

• Place

  China

• Topic

  Landscapes, Art, Waterfalls, Chinese Art, Pomo, Modern period (1912 - present)

• Culture

  Chinese

• Object Type

  Paintings