Ashmolean Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

After the Second World War (1939-1945), Zhang Daqian (1899-1983) left mainland China and lived in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Argentina, Brazil, and the USA before he retired and settled in Taiwan in 1978. This vibrant study of an old plum tree in blossom was painted when Zhang was living in Brazil, where, in his typical extravagant fashion, he created a huge Chinese garden, the Bade Garden. The inscription includes a poem ending in ‘[painted] in June of a bingwu year when South America is entering early spring. The white-haired Yuan enjoyed the plum blossom in Campos do Jordão and forgot to return. [Painted] in high spirits in Bade Garden, in my own style instead of ancient manners.’

In 1967 Zhang Daqian brought his paintings to the USA, as Michael Sullivan (1916-2013), then the Professor of Chinese Art at Stanford University, was curating an exhibition of Zhang’s work for the Stanford Museum. When Zhang saw how much Khoan (1919-2003) and Michael admired this painting, he gave it to ‘Mike wuxiong’ (my elder brother Michael) with a dedicatory inscription on the top right corner. The inscription reads ‘For my elder brother Michael to keep as a memento and to correct.’