Three Friends

ZHANG DAQIAN (1899-1983) Three Friends Handscroll, ink and colour on paper Inscribed and signed, with one seal of the artist Dated summer, renyin year (1962) Dedicated to Zhixi (Luo Jialun, 1897-1969) Titleslip inscribed by Luo Jialun NOTE : The recipient of the painting is Zhixi. Mianzhong, the courtesy name of Zha Liangzhao (1897-1982) is also mentioned in the inscription. Zha went to study at the University of Chicago and then Columbia University after graduating from Tsinghua College, a preparatory school for Chinese students to study in the United States. During the course of his study, he became friends with Luo Jialun a notable educator and historian. Zha worked as a guest lecturer at the University of New Delhi in India in the late 1940s, when Luo was an ambassador to India for the Republican Government. Meanwhile, because of the changing political climate in China, Zhang Daqian went all over the world. He embarked on his journey from Hong Kong in 1950, held an exhibition in New Delhi and stayed in Darjeeling for nearly a year. As the three were all in New Delhi, Luo Jialun invited Zhang Daqian and Zha Liangzhao to a party in the Chinese Embassy in India, when Zhang painted Three Friends as a gift to Luo Jialun. After 12 years, the three reunited in Japan. Unfortunately, the painting was already lost. Zhang Daqian, therefore, recreated the painting and added three old men into the picture, not only to symbolise the enduring characteristics of the three with pine trees, bamboos and plum blossoms, but also to commemorate their friendship that lasted over time. As a treasured piece in Luo Jialun’s private collection, it has vividly recorded the friendship of the three intellectuals in the modern era. 38.5 x 143 cm. (15 1/8 x 56 ¼ in.)