張大千生於四川內江，巴蜀名山處處，峨眉青城、三峽劍門，或秀或幽，或險或奇，地貌變化多樣，為其筆墨生涯提供無盡入畫素材，屢納於筆下。去國後，每每眷念故土，「行遍歐西南北美，看山須看故山青」，川中勝景，仍不時繪之，以寄鄉懷。

本幅寫蜀江景色，見四川盤地特徵，不以崇山之氣勢勝。近處平川如帶，清溪流淌，地勢緩，河道寬，林木茂，沿岸長堤，高士結伴，策杖尋幽。後景叢山萬重，連綿不斷，丘壑幽深，跌宕起伏，急湍蜿蜒，迴曲如蛇，迷宮般縱橫交錯；溪橋房舍，星羅棋佈，舟行其中，絡繹於途，別具川流不息之意趣。

他以青綠為主調，石綠敷坡，石青施石，礦物顏料著色濃重，色澤豐富明快，益顯青山如黛，一派明媚璀璨。復以墨鈎勒皴擦，仍傚董源法，用筆圓曲，用墨清潤，山體輪廓鮮明而富立體感。佈局精心，前景用色較濃，引領觀者視線自近而遠，袛見景物由大漸小，構圖由平轉奇，層次井然，步步遞進，呈咫尺千里之勢，意境雄偉深遠，亟盡江山無盡之概！

如此構圖手法，大千筆下鮮見。按畫上題跋，畫家謂「偶讀畫傳，黃筌有〈蜀江秋靜圖〉卷，拈筆擬之」，可見下筆時僅按畫傳文字所記，衍化為圖，未親睹黃荃原迹。若觀畫家一九四六年作〈嘉陵山水〉，構圖與本幅相近，或可從中窺探創作淵源，其跋曰：

從中可知，畫面取景嘉陵，採飛機上高空「俯瞰」角度所見，故寫來景物自近而遠，彷如凌空萬尺欣賞窗外美景，一望無遺。而江水迂迴之處理，則悟自同年所得之董源〈江隄晚景〉。實景參合前人畫迹，可謂師古之餘，復借鑑真山實水，如此別開生面之處理，堪稱「造化在手」也！

本幅與一九四六年本雖同出一題，惟先後之別，手法卻迥然有別。本幅取四呎整紙，尺幅較大，空間廣邈，構圖更趨複雜，點景細節更考究，精微如舟上船夫仍清晰可見，足見畫家無囿泥於舊製，搖身而成新貌。二畫相距三年，前者所記，乃西涉敦煌，探奇研習之旅，而下筆時維一九四六年初，烽火甫熄，暫棲故都，喜獲董源墨迹，心情稍安。本幅寫於「己丑閏七月」，即一九四九年九月，亦大千在國內之最後歲月，時「將出蜀南遊」，惟前路未明，百感交集，別緒離愁，泛上心頭，遂精製本幅，濃濃鄉情，盡寄於此。

本幅屬大千親攜海外之少數個人作品之一。日後輾轉移居多地，一直寶藏，直至一九六二年，方贈予孫兒。畫上題「付與嶷孫」，即大千三子葆蘿兒子張維先，囑曰「守之」，足見珍重之至。

又，題簽者王永年（1929-2009），「大風堂」入室弟子，一九四五年拜師。大千去國後，一直留在國內，可知署簽、裱工或同出於畫竟之年。

參考資料：一九四六年作〈嘉陵山水〉，可參見〈張宗憲珍藏中國近代書畫 ─ 十七家作品集〉（香港蘇富比有限公司，二○○二年六月），圖版161

Zhang Daqian was born in Neijiang, Sichuan, a province with many notable mountains and distinct geographic features, including Mount Emei, Mount Qingcheng, the Three Gorges, and Jianmen Pass. Beautiful yet remote, dangerous yet intriguing, these varied landforms provided him a lifetime of source material to paint. When he reminisced about China after he left, Zhang felt that ‘despite having travelled through Europe and North and South America, the mountains were never as green as those of [his] homeland’. He often painted beautiful scenes of winding rivers to convey his homesickness.

The river landscape in Quiet Autumn on a Sichuan River reflects the geographic characteristics of Sichuan as a lowland region graced with rivers. In the foreground, the flowing stream is broad and flat as a ribbon thread, accompanied by the undulating topography and luxuriant huts. Standing by the long embankments, the two scholars are taking in the beauty of nature. The continuous mountain range stretches afar at the back, while the swift and winding river snakes through, forming a labyrinthine landscape. The bridge and houses are plotted on like chess pieces and the river is bustling with boats and passengers, imbuing the work with a lively dynamism.

Zhang painted Quiet Autumn on a Sichuan River in primarily blue-green tones, applying malachite to the hills and azurite to the stones. The dense application of mineral pigments creates rich and bright colours. In some areas, the green of the hills resembles emeralds. His technique of outlining and shading with ink strokes mimic Dong Yuan’s methods, while his rounded brushwork created saturated and rounded lines. The contours of the mountains are thus distinct and dimensional. In this meticulous composition, the colour in the foreground is relatively rich, directing the viewer to gaze from near to the distance. As the viewer moves through methodical layers, the objects become smaller and recede into the background, creating a majestic sense of spatial depth and dimensionality. Zhang truly presents to us a scene of endless mountains and rivers.

This kind of composition is rare in Zhang’s body of work. According to the inscription on the painting that reads ‘I happened upon [a mention of] Huang Quan’s painting, Tranquil Autumn Rivers in Sichuan in a book, so I picked up my brush to imitate it’, he simply derived a painting from the textual description, without seeing Huang’s original work. Quiet Autumn on a Sichuan River has a similar composition to another work of Zhang Daqian, Jialing Landscape (1946), which has an annotation that may also offer some insights into the creation of the presented work:

This text shows that the work captures a view of Jialing from an airplane, which explains why the scene unfolds from near to far. We feel as if we are appreciating the scene extending as far as the eye can see outside the window from tens of thousands of feet in the air. The treatment of the meandering rivers stems from Dong Yuan’s Late Scenery Along a Riverbank (Jiangdi wanjing), which came into Zhang’s possession that year. He synthesised a real landscape with an ancient painting, transcending the imitation of the ancients with references to real mountains and rivers; this path-breaking approach truly demonstrates Zhang Daqian’s finest artistry.

Quiet Autumn on a Sichuan River engages with the same subject as the 1946 work, but the technique is entirely different. Here, Zhang uses an entire four-foot sheet of paper, so this rather large work offers ample space for a more complex composition. The details of the scene are also more considered—even the boatman on the water is clearly visible—demonstrating that Zhang continued to make innovative work, instead of clinging to his old ways. Jialing Landscape and Quiet Autumn on a Sichuan River were painted three years apart. The former recalls a time he travelled west toward Dunhuang on a journey of study and exploration, and he painted the piece in early 1946, after the end of World War II. He stayed temporarily in Chongqing, where he was delighted to encounter work by Dong Yuan that comforted him slightly. This work was painted in ‘the seventh month of jichou year [September 1949]’, amongst Zhang’s final days in China, just as he was ‘about to leave Sichuan and travel south’. With his future uncertain, many feelings welled up inside him, but sorrow was unavoidable. He gradually refined this painting to convey immense nostalgia for his homeland.

This painting was one of the few works of his own that Zhang Daqian took with him when he left China. Even though he moved many times, he kept it in his collection until he gave it to his grandson in 1962. The inscription ‘For my grandson Yi’ refers to Chang Wei Hsien, the son of Zhang Daqian’s third son Paul Chang, and urges him to ‘preserve it’, showing just how much the artist treasured the work.

Titleslip of the work was inscribed by Wang Yongnian (1929-2009), a student of Zhang’s in Dafengtang since 1945. After Zhang Daqian left China, Wang stayed behind, which tells us that the work was most likely completed, inscribed and mounted in the same year.