Lot 1377. Zhang Daqian (1899-1983), Horse After Northern Wei Style. Scroll, mounted and framed, ink and colour on silk, 106 x 64.5 cm. (41 ¾ x 25 3/8 in.). Inscribed and signed, with three seals of the artist. Dated eighth month, bingxu year (1946). Estimate HKD 4,000,000 - HKD 5,000,000. Price realised HKD 9,660,000 © Christie's Images Ltd 2017

Provenance: Purchased by the original owner through Zhang Daqian’s exhibitions in Shanghai in 1940’s, and passed down by descent.

Exhibited: Taipei, National Museum of History, Special Exhibition of Art and Cultural Relics of Dunhuang, 12 November, 1967.

Note: Dunhuang played an immensely important part in Zhang Daqian’s artistic development. Zhang’s exposure to the magnificent Buddhist murals of the Tang dynasty and even earlier periods of China’s artistic traditions proved to be a creative breakthrough for the artist’s subsequent creations, evident in his meticulous brushwork and exact application of colour..

Horse After Northern Wei Style is based on a mural painting located on the central pillar of the eastern wall of Dunhuang Mogao Cave 290 from the Northern Wei dynasty. The mural depicts a horse and its groom from the northern tribes (illustrated) with the groom displaying a tall nose and sunken eyes. According to He Shizhe’s research, the horse depicted could possibly be a very important horse in history as records show Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou gave a royal steed to General Li Xian. Here, in Horse After Northern Wei Style, Zhang Daqian omits the ethnic figures and background, choosing to only depict the white steed. He renders the three-dimensionality of the horse through the use of light ink wash to represent shadowing, while using white powder to highlight the joints and hairs. The inclusion of elegant vermillion, azure blues, and malachite greens to depict the harness further heightens its finesse and the horse’s hooves remain large, similar to the original Northern Wei work.. 

Zhang Daqian once stated, “Northern Wei is exaggerative. They paint horses from the western regions, and they paint the hooves twice as large as an average horse’s.” Even though the painting is devoid of figures, the reins are apparent, giving power and animation to the horse and likely groom, working hard to tame the stallion.