zhangzeduan (张择端)

zhangzeduan (张择端) (1085—1145), Chinese, Song Dynasty (960–1279), a court painter of Emperor Huizong’s Northern Song dynasty, is celebrated for his monumental genre painting Along the River During the Qingming Festival (Qingming Shanghe Tu). Active in the early 12th century, he served in the Hanlin Painting Academy, specializing in meticulous brushwork and mineral pigments to capture urban life with documentary precision.

His masterpiece, a 24.8 cm × 528.7 cm handscroll, immortalizes Bianjing (modern Kaifeng) during the Qingming Festival, depicting over 800 figures, 60 vessels, and architectural complexes through scattered perspective—a technique merging temporal and spatial narratives. The work, housed in the Palace Museum, is hailed as the "pinnacle of Chinese urban genre painting" for its ethnographic detail and technical mastery. A disputed work, Competition at Jinming Pond (Jinming Chi Zheng Biao Tu), also survives. Zhang’s fusion of realism and poetic composition profoundly shaped later Chinese narrative painting traditions.

In-depth exploration of Along the River During the Qingming Festival. Zhang Zeduan.

zhangzeduan (张择端) (Chinese, 1085—1145)

Painted by Northern Song artist Zhang Zeduan. It depicts the bustling and vibrant scenes during the Qingming season in and around the East Jiaozi Gate of Bianjing

zhangzeduan (张择端)

In-depth exploration of Along the River During the Qingming Festival. Zhang Zeduan.