Thatched Cottages by Cloudy Mountains
Image: H. 15 5/8 in × W. 26 1/4 in (39.7 cm × 66.7 cm)
Chang Dai-chien, along with Pu Ru and Huang Junbi, are known as the three most famous Chinese ink masters outside of China (duhai sanjia 渡海三家/Overseas Three). They all excelled at traditional painting, poetry, and calligraphy, obtaining their nationwide fame before fleeing mainland China after 1949. For the rest of their lives, they continued to promote the teaching and development of Chinese ink painting and achieved great accomplishments abroad.
Chang first lived in Argentina and Brazil before relocating to northern California in the 1960s. This painting is one of the gifts he gave to his friend Yao Hsin-nung, a professor who taught theater at San Francisco State University. Yao and his wife visited Chang’s residence at Carmel in the winter of 1972, soon after the artist opened his most influential retrospective exhibition overseas at the Asian Art Museum. Chang painted this misty mountain landscape that possibly imitated the local scenery, implying an invitation to have a friend along on a winter journey to explore the beauty of a new world.
