Wrought Iron Paintings of Wuhu

Lotus Blossoms

Tiehua can be literally translated as wrought iron painting. It is a form of painting made out of wrought iron, soft, easily worked, and fibrous.

In the late seventeenth century, an artisan named Tang Peng (1644-1722) collabrated with a famous painter Xiao Yuncong (1596-1673) created the new form of painting with wrought iron. The iron was malleable and welded into a painting in the style of traditional Chinese painting. The painting features spatial composition, continuum of wet to dry brush strokes, and thickness and thinness of ink, which we often see in the traditional Chinese brush painting.

The picture, painted in black, set against with the white background. The dimensional iron also reveals malleability of wrought iron. Mountains, rivers, figurines, flowers, birds, and insects, as long as they can be painted on the rice paper, become favorite subject matters of wrought iron paintings.

A Horse

A Train