The main content of the short article: When Zhang Daqian was a child, his uncle gave him a tiger cub. Daqian painted in front of the tiger, and Daqian and the tiger became good friends. One day, a thief stole the beef that was fed to the tiger. Daqian wanted the tiger not to move. The tiger bit Daqian angrily, but Daqian comforted the tiger. Although Daqian was injured, he painted the tiger's angry expression. Because of Zhang Daqian's persistence, his paintings became art treasures.
Why doesn’t Zhang Daqian paint tigers?
Tiger is the king of beasts, with a majestic and colorful image. It has been a favorite subject of Chinese painters since ancient times. As far as animals are concerned, tigers may be the earliest ones to be included in paintings. Tigers appear in almost all the murals of many ancient temples in China.
Ren Bonian (1840-1896), a famous painter in the late Qing Dynasty, was good at painting tigers. Anyone who asks him to draw a tiger needs to pay 10 taels of silver. One day, a wealthy businessman took advantage of his difficult life and asked him to paint a painting. He was paid 5 taels and said that he would paint half a tiger, hoping to embarrass him. Ren Bonian did not show weakness when he saw that the wealthy businessman was deliberately making things difficult for him. He concentrated on thinking for a moment, and then drew a cave on the rice paper with a few strokes. At the entrance of the cave, he drew the back half of a tiger. The tiger's tail was raised, and its two hind feet were raised and lowered. The tiger is just entering its hole. The wealthy businessman was amazed when he saw this. It can be seen that painting a tiger not only requires the pursuit of spiritual resemblance, but also requires efforts in creativity and subtlety.
As the saying goes, "It is difficult to paint the skin of a tiger but the bones", which means that without observing the tiger in detail, it is impossible to draw the charm and posture of the tiger. Zhang Shanzi, the second brother of the master of traditional Chinese painting Zhang Daqian, is a "tiger fanatic" and is known as the "Master of Tiger Painting". In order to paint tigers well, he raised tigers himself for sketching. He carefully observed the various forms of tigers, and the tigers he painted were lifelike and full of charm. The ferocious habits of tigers make people afraid of them, but Zhang Shanzhu used anthropomorphism to create the "Twelve Golden Hairpins", ingeniously painting 12 female hairpins with beautiful faces and moonlike faces into colorful tigers with different charms. The incompatible beasts and beauties were brought into the painting just right, revealing the unique artistic insights of the master of tiger painting, which once shocked the painting world.
In the spring of 1923, Zhang Shanzhu painted two tigers in Jinping Mountain, Sichuan. They were engraved on two stone tablets and accompanied by a poem: "The tiger looks at the east and west, and the rivers, mountains and melons are within sight. Sleeping. The lion is still awake.
Who will be the master in the future?" expresses the painter's enthusiasm for resisting Japan and saving the country. From 1939 to 1940, he held many art exhibitions and lectures in France and the United States to publicize and introduce the Chinese people's anti-Japanese struggle. The donations received amounted to more than 200,000 U.S. dollars, of which more than 100,000 U.S. dollars were raised from individual charity sales of tiger paintings. In 1940, Zhang Shanzhe went to the United States to hold an art exhibition. President Roosevelt met him and hosted a banquet, and asked him to create a tiger painting. During the dinner, Zhang Shanzi improvised and drew 28 galloping tigers, chasing the setting sun. The mighty and brave tiger symbolized the 28 provinces of China at that time, and the setting sun symbolized the dying breath of the Japanese invaders. He also wrote an inscription on it: "The majestic king's wind roars in unison; the majestic rivers and mountains swallow up the clowns!" and titled this tiger painting "China roars!" ", a metaphor for the mighty and unyielding spirit of the Chinese nation. President Roosevelt was full of praise after admiring the tiger painting.
Zhang Shanzhu’s younger brother is the world-famous painter Zhang Daqian. Once, Zhang Daqian took advantage of the wine and painted a six-foot-long "Tiger Roaring Picture" in the middle hall. Zhang Shanzhen thought highly of his brother's tiger painting and wrote a poem to add scenery to it.
The painting was later bought by the Japanese at a high price. Since then, more and more people have asked Zhang Daqian to draw tigers. When one of the art dealers asked Zhang Daqian for a tiger painting, he said: "My skill in painting tigers is unparalleled, better than my brother Nai!" He also wanted to buy Zhang Daqian's "tiger paintings" at a price that was ten times higher than Zhang Shan's.
Zhang Daqian was very unhappy with some people praising him and disparaging his brother. He declined the art dealer and posted a banner on the door of his studio with the words "Daqian is willing to suffer poverty and hardship, and he will not paint a tiger with a thousand taels of gold" to show his no longer.
Draw a tiger. It is said that Zhang Daqian never drew a tiger again.