Zhang Daqian (aka Chang Dai-chien), who was mentioned in the film about the Mogao Caves yesterday, was one of the greatest artists in the 20th century, a real virtuoso who seemed to be at home in landscape, flower and portrait painting, as well as being a master at replicas of ancient works.
He was so good at the latter that it is simply unknown which of the great ancient Chinese paintings hanging in galleries throughout the world are genuine, and which are Chang Dai-chien forgeries.
This dubious skill he developed to a large extent from the years he spent at Dunhuang studying the great Buddhist mural paintings in these remote desert caves.
The first three of these films are paintings with music, the next two are in Mandarin only, and the last is an introduction to one book of his paintings by a reseller.
There are some good online galleries of his artworks at the
China Online Museum.
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