Page 111 - Christie's Fine Chinese Modern and Contemporary Ink Paintings hk may 226 27 2021

From The Collection Of Zhang Xinjia

Born in the Forbidden City, Beijing in 1928, Zhang Xinjia is the
youngest daughter of Zhang Shanzi, the elder brother of Zhang Daqian.
Petite in stature and fearless at heart, the young girl known to her family
as Jiade grew up in the storied Garden of the Master of Nets in Suzhou
in the early 1930s, where her family took up residence and where her
father, famed for his spirited depictions of tigers, cared for a tiger gifted
to him. For several years the Garden was a sanctuary for artists, scholars
and connoisseurs such as Ye Gongchuo. It was in this extraordinary
milieu that Xinjia, under the guidance of her father and uncle, received
her first lessons in painting.

In 1937, with war imminent in
China, Zhang Shanzi took his
family on a long, arduous journey
to seek refuge, first to Yichang
in Hubei, where he created the as soon as you can. Go to Hong Kong first. From there, it will be easy to
earliest surviving painting in enter Taiwan.’ It was still highly unusual for someone to travel from the
celebration of Xinjia’s birthday, Chinese mainland to Taiwan then. Unsurprisingly, Xinjia was stranded in
and eventually to Chongqing. Hong Kong for several months. It took persistent lobbying, aided by Zhang
From there he embarked Daqian’s politician friends, for Xinjia to finally be allowed in Taiwan, where
on campaigns to Europe and she stayed with her uncle during his final years.
North America, fundraising for
war relief efforts by exhibiting In Taiwan, Xinjia spent several blissful years by her uncle’s side. An
and selling his paintings. The accomplished artist and calligrapher herself, she was naturally entrusted
gruelling trips inevitably took a with organising his private papers: previously unpublished manuscripts,
toll on his health and upon his sketches, menus, and letters to family and friends spanning decades
return in 1940, he succumbed to a sudden illness. Zhang Daqian was then – providing an intimate glimpse into the artist’s world in which his
a month into his north-ward journey to Dunhuang. Stricken with grief, generosity, humility and joie de vivre come to light. Many works were
he rushed to Chongqing and vowed to take care of Xinjia and her siblings, painted or inscribed for Xinjia, often with a dedication ‘to my darling
a promise he kept unwaveringly over the next forty years. niece’. Most exemplary is a rare sketch depicting an elegant lady and
two scholars with simple brushstrokes, and an amusing inscription: ‘June
After the war, Xinjia came of age and returned to Shanghai, where she 29th, xinhai year (1981) – today marks the second day I try out contact
pursued studies in geology and archaeology. In 1953 she married Duan lenses’, perhaps a reminder of a happy afternoon in the studio.
Qing’an, a chemical engineer, and together they raised two children.
Throughout these decades her uncle lived in South and North America, Since the artist’s passing in 1983, the collection of paintings and
although they kept in close touch through correspondences. ‘If you’re calligraphy has been under Xinjia’s careful stewardship in loving
ever in need,’ Zhang Daqian wrote in a letter to Xinjia and her sister memory of her uncle, and presents the largest collection of Zhang
during the tumultuous years of the 1970s, ‘write any time. Uncle will Daqian’s private writing to ever appear in the market to date. Her
do whatever it takes.’ True to his word, he became guardian to Xinjia’s extraordinary life, from Shanghai, Suzhou, Chongqing, Taiwan to the
son Duan Jing in the 1960s, fully supporting his studies in Brazil and United States, bears witness to the changing histories of China in
th
California. An endearing portrait by him of his young grandniece Duan the 20 century. The artworks are not only invaluable additions to
Duan, likely done from photographs, also tenderly demonstrates the scholarship and connoisseurship, but also personal gifts from Zhang
affectionate relationship between Zhang Daqian and his niece’s family. Daqian and Zhang Shanzi to their beloved niece and daughter, as
gestures of affection, together or apart.
When Zhang Daqian settled in Taiwan in 1977,
China was gradually opening up. A letter from the
artist in the collection recounted a terrible accident
of falling into a pond while taking a stroll in his
garden in 1979: ‘in distress I called out to everyone…
it took an hour before someone came to my rescue.
My back is awfully injured.’ He had long wished
to be united with Xinjia, and this injury proved to
be the last straw. In a letter dated October 1979, he
urged in earnest: ‘my niece, I hope you will come

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