Wen Jiabao steps out of retirement shadow to hail quake artist
Former premier, who asked people to ‘forget him’, inspires painter with letter praising work
Former premier Wen Jiabao, who once said he wished to be "forgotten" in retirement, has made a rare public gesture by praising a Sichuan artist's "heroic" painting of rescue efforts after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake.
"Thank you for recording those moments of tragedy and sorrow with images that touch heaven and earth with your paintbrush," Wen wrote in a short letter to Zhang Fangzhen, an oil painter from the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in Chongqing, the Chongqing Morning Post reported yesterday.
The painting, Dawn, shows Wen standing among rescuers in the debris at Wenchuan in Sichuan province, talking to buried victims through a megaphone while medics and soldiers rush to the scene.
The earthquake left 88,000 people dead or missing.
Zhang finished the painting in June 2009 and used it as the main image in a set of calendars he printed and sent to friends
On September 1, he mailed one to Wen, the newspaper said.