East Lyme — When Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s official gubernatorial portrait was unveiled Thursday night at Hartford’s Museum of Connecticut History, it was immediately apparent that his portrait was much different from those of his predecessors.

Surrounded by those portraits in the museum’s Memorial Hall, Malloy’s painting, with its unconventional pose, colors and symbolism, was a purposeful step away from the traditional, both in its imagery and with the artist chosen to paint it.

Commissioned to bring that vision to fruition was Christopher Zhang of East Lyme, a Chinese immigrant who belongs to several art organizations nationwide including the Lyme Art Association, the Copley Society of Art in Boston and the Oil Painters of America where he has been recognized as a master oil painter.

Zhang is known for his realistic painting style, which merges Chinese and westernized influences — a bridge, Zhang said, between East and West. Besides portraits, Zhang is known for his use of color, depicting Chinese culture through its people, paintings of Western ballet dancers and landscapes from Tibet or New England, among other locations.

Zhang immigrated from China to Providence in the late '80s to pursue a master’s degree in fine art at the Rhode Island School of Design before completing his studies at Rhode Island College. Arriving with just a suitcase, a roll of canvas paintings and $30, Zhang said those paintings were enough to land him a show at a small gallery in East Providence, garnering him the attention of New London’s Griffis Art Center where he later moved for a year-long residency from 1991 to 1992.

He has since worked solely as an artist and has resided in East Lyme since 2002 with his daughter, Xing Xin, who now studies law at Columbia University, and his wife, Wenying Yan, a family physician in Norwich.

Speaking of his own commitment to defend human rights during his eight years as governor, Malloy said by phone Thursday his choice to commission Zhang was a purposeful one.

“Choosing this artist is a part of the bigger story,” Malloy said, while also explaining that commissioning a portrait of outgoing governors is a longstanding tradition in Connecticut that dates back to the early 1800s. “I’ve stood by and defended our refugees throughout the time I’ve been mayor or governor, and with this, there is symbolism even in the choosing.”

“It was his very compelling life story that I wanted to be a part of,” Malloy said.

Mao and the Chinese Cultural Revolution

Born in 1954 and raised in Shanghai, Zhang lived under Mao Zedong’s communist totalitarian regime. More prominently, Zhang also lived through the chaos and destruction of the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution — a period where Mao reasserted his authority by repressing and removing capitalist elements from Chinese society.

Reflecting on that time, Zhang remembers Mao’s army guards coming into his home and taking everything from his family, even his parents’ wedding photos.

“They took everything from us, everything. They humiliated you. You lost your freedom,” Zhang said, also explaining that his mother, who was a teacher, was forced to work in a kitchen, while his father was forced to sweep streets.

“We were given rationed amounts of rice and buns. We were only allowed one pair of pants and one pair of boots,” Zhang said.

It was also during this time that the government ordered Zhang, who was just 12 years old when the Revolution began, to paint propaganda portraits of Mao without pay. Zhang did this for 10 years until Mao’s death in 1976.

“I did Mao portraits by day, but at night I taught myself Russian art techniques,” Zhang said, explaining that his desire to advance his talents outweighed his fears of his government. To do that, he collected Russian magazines from family and friends featuring famous art works, such as Ivan Kramskoi’s “A Portrait of an Unknown Woman,” and studied them in his bedroom.

“I had to be very careful because our neighbors were always spying on us. We were an artistic family (his father was a calligrapher). But I loved art and I didn’t want to stop,” Zhang said.

Zhang said that by the age of 2, he had filled the walls of his Shanghai home with drawings. By the age of 3, he already knew art was his calling. That same year, he was selected by his kindergarten teachers to attend the Children’s Palace, an extracurricular afterschool program that taught specialized art courses. There, he learned drawing and paintings foundations such as shading, perspective and color, focusing specifically on still life techniques.

Progressing through elementary school, Zhang continued to learn Westernized art techniques at the Palace, specifically those from 19th century Russia. Western painters such as Rembrandt and the French impressionists also influenced his work. His studies at the Palace ended, however, once the Cultural Revolution began.

An eight-month process

Malloy said Thursday he first discovered Zhang's work after purchasing one of his paintings depicting a New England landscape while visiting the Copley Society of Art in Boston three or four years ago. Because he and his wife are avid art collectors, Malloy said he started reading about Zhang and noted that, because he was a Connecticut artist with an intriguing background, he began considering the artist to paint his outgoing portrait.  

In April, after receiving a call from Malloy’s office to do that, Zhang said he approached his relationship with the governor with respect, describing the eight-month planning and painting process as a democratic exchange of ideas over a series of home visits.

“I knew I needed to visit him in his home. I needed to get to know him, I needed to watch how he moved, his mannerisms,” Zhang said. “I looked through all his family photos with him. I wanted to know him.”

“He has a strong personality. He talks a lot. He has a sense of humor and he likes to make jokes. So I wanted to depict this part of his personality,” Zhang said.

Beginning with three preliminary sketch ideas for the portrait, the two settled on portraying Malloy in his Hartford governor’s mansion surrounded by his most meaningful achievements and memories.

Of those images, Malloy wears a green Sandy Hook Promise wristband, honoring the memory of the massacre that happened six years ago. On the right side of his desk sits a Profile in Courage Award from the John F. Kennedy Library in recognition of “courageously defending the U.S. resettlement of Syrian refugees.” On the left side of the desk are flags symbolizing legislation Malloy signed prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity, as well as executive orders signed to protect transgender rights.

“What was most important for me is that Governor Malloy was an art lover and he loves his family. I needed to show that, too,” Zhang said. “He is not only a politician. He has a family side to him. He does not compare with Mao or Stalin.”

A picture of him kissing his granddaughter at the Governor’s 2018 State of the State address can be seen on the right side of the portrait, while another photo in the painting shows Malloy walking with his wife and three sons.

The planning, background and composition of the portrait took nearly six months, Zhang said, while the painting itself only took two. The portrait cost about $30,000 and was paid for by the state.

“My art is not meant to be political, and that is possible here in the United States, where I have freedom,” he said. “What stood out to me was how we both came from two complete sides of the world, two completely different backgrounds. This painting bridged together those sides, both East and West.”

m.biekert@theday.com