Portrait of Zhang Caiqin

Inscription: Beihong made this portrait of the Daoist priest Caiqin in mid-autumn of the Guiwei year (1943). It was once exhibited in Chengdu.
Seal: “Xu Beihong” (Square seal with relief characters)

Zhang Caiqin (1901-1984), also known as Zhang Xuerong, was from Jiangjin in Chongqing. He was a modern education activist, a noted Chinese painter, a member of the China Artists Association and its Sichuan branch, and a researcher at the Sichuan Literature and History Institute. He published monographs such as A Collection of Caiqin’s Paintings, Caiqin’s Recent Ink Paintings, The Theory of Chinese Painting, and A Brief Commentary on Chinese Painting. Together with Zhang Daqian and Zhang Shanzi, he is honored as one of the “Three Zhangs of Sichuan.”