EAGLE

Zhang Shuqi was an experienced and highly regorded artist and teacher when he come to the United States in 1942. While the highpoint of his time in the U.S. was the presentation of his Messengers of Peace to President Franklin D. Roosevelt on behalf of the Chinese government, he also lectured and exhibited widely. Zhang returned to China in 1946 but then moved permanently to California in 1949. His paintings were included in the Metropolitan Museum of Art show Chinese Contemporary Paintings of 1948.

According to a note that accompanies the painting written by his wife Adele Stricker in 1994, Miles C. Stricker acquired this painting directly from Zhang Shuqi when he painted it as part of a demonstration at the Business Men's Art Institute in Los Angeles on May 4, 1944.