Zhang Hong

• Zhang Hong, styled Jundu and also known as Hejian, was a renowned painting master of the Ming dynasty from Suzhou. He excelled in landscape painting and placed great importance on sketching from life. His brushwork was bold and vigorous, his ink tones moist and rich; his mountains appeared layered and towering, his autumn ravines deep and profound, all infused with the ancient spirit of Yuan-dynasty art. His distinctive technique lay in combining texture strokes with ink washes when depicting rock surfaces. In his freehand figure paintings, both form and spirit were vividly captured, with well-balanced compositions. He was a central figure in the late-Ming Wu School of painting and was highly esteemed by scholars of Suzhou.