Zhang Dannong was born in Guangdong, China and moved to Singapore in 1940. Before his relocation, Zhang trained in the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts and was formerly a professor of Fine Arts at Sun Yat-Sen University. A well-rounded artist proficient in Chinese ink painting, calligraphy and seal carving, Zhang is reputed for his paintings of horses and tigers. As one of Singapore’s pioneer artists, Zhang is also known as one of the first to popularise the art of seal carving in the region and is said to have produced more than three thousand engraved seals in his lifetime.
Zhang Dan Nong wrote in a semi-cursive script, otherwise known as the running script. While it is crucial in the regular script for characters to rigidly maintain their place and balance within the paper, on the other hand, this style permits characters to overlap each other’s space slightly. The semi-cursive script emerged in China during the Han Dynasty. This scroll describes a dream of a tranquil and rainy landscape.
