Divine Redwood Trees (Shenmu) In Taiwan
Artist
Chang Dai-chien
(Zhang Daqian; Chinese, 1899 - 1983)
Date1970
MaterialsInk and colors on paper
DimensionsFramed: H. 59 1/8 in × W. 83 7/16 in × D. 1 1/4 in (150.2 cm × 211.9 cm × 3.2 cm)
Image: H. 58 1/8 in × W. 82 7/16 in (147.6 cm × 209.4 cm)
Image: H. 58 1/8 in × W. 82 7/16 in (147.6 cm × 209.4 cm)
Credit LineGift of the artist
Object numberB73D4
DepartmentChinese Art
ClassificationsPainting
On View
Not on viewSigned“三千”（白文方印）、“自詡名山足此生”（朱文方印）、“大風堂印”（朱文方印）、“己亥己巳戊庚辛丙”（白文方印）。
Sanqian (square intaglio), Zixu mingshan zu chisheng (square relief), Dafengtang yin (square relief), jihai jisi wugeng xinbing (square intaglio).
Inscribed“‘四山云不尽蟠虬，直幹巍然百尺脩。不與兒曹同俛仰，飽風飽雨自千秋。’ 臺灣橫貫公路神木。五十九年六月自臺北還，可以居寫。爰翁。”
‘Endless surrounding clouds of the mountains cover the dragon-like trees, which stand tall and upright, with their trunks hundred feet in height. They stay together to experience wind and rain for the past thousand years, never begging for something as your folks.’
(I) painted divine redwoods on the East-West highway crossing Taiwan. I painted this at Keyiju, after I came back from Taipei in the sixth lunar month in the 59th year (of the republican period). Old man Yuan.
More InformationMalachite (copper green) and azurite (copper blue) along with ink have been used in Chinese painting for more than a millennium to evoke a dreamy utopian landscape, generally on intimate scales that nevertheless suggest the grandeur of immense mountain ranges. Chang Dai-chien brings a different intensity to the genre of blue-and-green landscapes here. The atmosphere in this massive work quivers with vitality, as brusque modulations of paint surround a stately dawn redwood tree—a sacred tree in Taiwan and a symbol of longevity. Chang was himself about seventy years old when he painted this work.
