Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Children Write to the Army
Zhang Ding Chinese
Not on view
This colorful image, in the style of folk-art prints from Yangliuqing, depicts children writing letters to their military heroes, a favored theme expressing the people’s affection for the army. The revolutionary message is integrated with traditional symbols such as the gourds of long life and good fortune.
Zhang studied traditional Chinese painting at the Beijing Academy of Fine Arts. During the Sino-Japanese War (1937–45) he taught cartoon making at the Lu Xun Academy of Literature and Art in Yan’an. Purged in 1957 as a rightist and again during the Cultural Revolution, he was rehabilitated in 1978 and later served as President of the Chinese Artists’ Association.
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
