Scholars Meeting

ZHANG DAQIAN (1899-1983)
Scholars Meeting
Scroll, mounted and framed, ink and colour on paper
89.2 x 45.5 cm. (35 ¹⁄₈ x 17 ⁷⁄₈ in.)
Inscribed and signed, with two seals of the artist
Dated Lantern Festival, yisi year (1965)

A polymathic artist, calligrapher, playwright, film producer and actor, Wang Chi-po (1925-1964) was born in Shanghai and graduated from St. John’s University in Shanghai at the age of 19, before furthering his studies at Soochow University. In his youth, he studied calligraphy and seal carving with Deng Sanmu and authored several publications on calligraphy. Following his move to Hong Kong in the 1950s, he started working in the film industry, writing screenplays and producing movies. He held exhibitions of his calligraphic works, which were well received in Hong Kong. Wang was invited by Louis Cha to write the title of Ming Pao at the founding of the newspaper that still appears as the masthead today. He was married to the actress and artist Molly Oong Mei Ying (Weng Mulan, 1927-1998), who starred in the 1959 comedy The Quarrelsome Couple and studied flower-and-bird painting with the artist Gao Yihong.
Their daughter Wang Tan-tan, known as Diana, began painting at a young age and studied with Zhao Shao’ang, Peng Ximing and Zhou Shixin. In 1965, she became one of the last disciples of Zhang Daqian’s and travelled to the artist’s residence in Brazil, the Garden of Eight Virtues, where she spent three years at his studio. Zhang Daqian once wrote in his colophon on Diana’s painting that: ‘my student Tan-tan […] journeyed thousands of miles to follow my footsteps. So bright and intelligent is she, that she comprehends my teachings immediately.’ In a letter dated January 1967 to Diana, addressing her as ‘my good niece’, Zhang Daqian wrote that ‘please tend to all matters at home diligently, and be reminded to copy paintings and practise calligraphy, which is of the utmost importance,’ before adding endearingly: ‘how are the cats, dogs, birds and gibbons? Are they behaving themselves?’ It is evident that for Zhang Daqian, Diana was not only a brilliant young artist, but also a student he adored.
In 1971 Diana married Chang Yiu-Cho (1942-1975), a fellow student of Zhang Daqian’s in Brazil who was also known as Zhang Shizheng. His talents were much appreciated by Zhang Daqian, although unfortunately, his artistic career came to an untimely end with his passing. The present selection of paintings from the Wang Chi-po family collection includes paintings and calligraphy directly dedicated to members of the family, standing as a testament to the close friendships between the artists and the Wang family over two generations. Multiple works from this collection were presented in the 2022 Christie's Chinese Paintings autumn auctions and have achieved excellent results.