Known as the “Guardian of the Dunhuang Caves”, Chang Shuhong, the people’s artist, was born in Hangzhou. He went for study in France and returned home in 1937 to teach at the national art school. In 1943, he moved his whole family to the remote Dunhuang in Northwest China to pursue his long-cherished art of the Mogao Brottos. From then on, he started his 40 years’ hard life and artistic creation, leaving people countless stirring deeds.
　　Chang was an accomplished painter. During the early years of his study in France, he did quite a few oil paintings of his own style, which brought him a gold prize. In the War of Resistance Against Japan, he never gave up painting. Even during his laborious times in Dunhuang, he was so struck by everything in the Northwest as to produce a lot of landscape paintings and figure paintings while recording his impressions of life and art there. After years of upheaval, however, there are only a few of his precious works left behind.
　　In 1999, Chang’s family presented to the Zhejiang Museum the whole collection of his 240 pieces, including oil paintings, gouaches and sketches. All these works give a basically complete picture of his style.