Beyond the Brushstrokes: How Zhang Daqian's Art Captures the Transcendent Spirit of Faith

Zhang Daqian, also known as Chang Dai-chien, was one of the most renowned Chinese artists of the 20th century. He was born in 1899 in Sichuan Province, China, into a family of Roman Catholics who had lost their former scholar-official status but still kept their artistic and scholarly traditions. His mother taught him to paint flowers when he was a child, and he later studied with famous calligraphers and painters in Shanghai. He changed his name to Zhang Daqian when he became a painter, and adopted different styles and techniques throughout his career. He was known for his traditional and modern paintings, as well as his skill in forgery(12). He moved to Taiwan in 1978 and lived there until his death in 19831. In Taiwan, he is usually referred to as Chang Dai-chien, which is the Wade-Giles romanization of his name(2). Wade-Giles is a system of transliterating Chinese characters into Latin alphabet that was widely used in Taiwan before the adoption of Hanyu Pinyin(3). Hanyu Pinyin is another system of romanization that is now the official standard in China and internationally