[Chang Hsüan] (b Chang’an [now Xi’an, Shaanxi Province]; fl. c. 710 ce; d after 748 ce). Chinese painter. He was considered one of the outstanding painters of secular figures in a period when that category of painting flourished, although he is mentioned only briefly in Zhang Yanyuan’s Lidai minghua ji ('Record of famous painters of all periods'; 847 ce). His compositions are known only through copies and recorded titles. According to the Tang chao minghua lu ('Record of famous painters of the Tang dynasty'; second quarter of the 9th century) by Zhu Jingxuan, he painted terraces, trees, garden flowers, and birds; his main subject, however, was contemporary court ladies depicted in genre scenes, which omitted all objects except those that were essential to the particular activity depicted. Records of such paintings help to establish the period of Zhang’s activity; a copy of a painting by Emperor Huizong (reg 1101–1125) of the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127) in the Liaoning Provincial Museum, Shenyang, identifies the subject of several of them as Lady Guoguo, the beautiful sister of Yang Guifei, consort of Emperor Xuanzong (...