The Iron Picture

A cross between painting and sculpture, the iron picture is an art probably unique to China.

Reportedly it was first created by Tang Peng (alias Tang Tianchi), a blacksmith who lived in Wulu, Anhui Province, in the mid-17th century when the Ming was replaced by the Qing Dynasty. Using the anvil as his inkstone and the hammer as his brush, he forged, filed and shaped iron (or low=carbon steel) strips and wires into pictures by following the principles of composition of the Chinese painting.

This art developed by the smith-artist has been handed down and cultivated for three hundred years. The picture in iron is normally painted black, with or without luster, which forms a clear contrast with the light-coloured wall on which it is hung. The landscapes, flowers and plants represented in iron appeal to viewers with a three-dimensional effect of simplicity and boldness rarely found elsewhere.

A popular story tells how Tang Tianchi hit upon the idea of “drawing in iron”. A close neighbour to Xiao Yun, it painter of some renown at the time, the blacksmith with an artistic penchant used to go and watch Xiao at work, only to be sneered at as “stupid” by the latter. Infuriated, he managed making pictures with iron, pioneering a new game.