It depicts Mao Zedong and other Communist Party officials proclaiming the People's Republic of China at Tiananmen Square on October 1, 1949.

Wang had toured the Soviet Union and observed its art, with which he was greatly impressed, and he proposed that sculptures and paintings be exhibited depicting the Party's history, for eventual inclusion in the planned Museum of the Chinese Revolution.

Wang's proposal was preliminarily approved in March 1951, and a committee, including the art critic and official Jiang Feng, was appointed to seek suitable artists.

[6] None of the works initially obtained for the museum depicted the crowning moment of the revolution, the ceremony at Tiananmen Square on October 1, 1949, when Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic.

[7] Dong Xiwen, a professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in Beijing, was accomplished and politically reliable, and had been present at the October 1 ceremony: he was an obvious candidate.

[10] Dong took some liberties with the appearance of Tiananmen Gate, opening up the space in front of Mao to grant the chairman a more direct connection with his people,[11] something that architect Liang Sicheng deemed a mistake for a builder, but artistically brilliant.

Necessarily, only the officials and not the crowd below are represented as individuals; art historian Wu Hung wrote that "the parading masses in the Square derive strength from a collective anonymity.

[2] Mao, who is presented as a statesman, not as the revolutionary leader he was during the conflict, faces Qianmen, aligning himself along Beijing's old imperial North-South Axis, symbolizing his authority.

The chairman is at the center of multiple, concentric circles in the painting, with the innermost formed by the front row of his comrades, another by the people in the square, and the outermost the old city walls.

[15] Although Dong had been trained in Western painting, he chose a folk art style for The Founding of the Nation, using bright, contrasting colors in a manner similar to that of New Year's prints popular in China.

"[11] Artists in the early years of the People's Republic, including Dong, sought to satisfy Chinese aesthetic tastes in their works and so depicted their subjects in bright original color, avoiding complex use of light and shadow on faces as in many Western paintings.

Two of these, Luo Gongliu's Tunnel Warfare and Wang Shikuo's Sending Him Off to the Army, were completed in 1951; The Founding of the Nation was finished the following year.

He depicted the clothing in detail; Madame Song wears gloves showing flowers, while Zhang Lan's silk robe appears carefully ironed for the momentous day.

[22] Dong used sawdust to enhance the texture of the carpet on which Mao stands;[11] he painted the marble railing as yellowish rather than white, thus emphasizing the age of the Chinese nation.

[22] Senior Party leaders, though, approved of the painting, as art historian Chang-Tai Hung put it, "seeing it as a testament to the young nation's evolving identity and growing confidence".

[12] Soon after the unveiling, Jiang wanted to arrange an exhibition at which government officials, including Mao, could view and publicly endorse the new Chinese art.

As Dong Biwu was in the second row, mostly hidden by the large Zhu De, Mao was most likely joking, but the favorable reaction by the country's leader assured the success of the painting.

[24] The Founding of the Nation was hailed as one of the greatest oil paintings ever by a Chinese artist by reviewers in that country, and more than 500,000 reproductions were sold in three months.

One English-language magazine published by the Chinese government for distribution abroad showed a model family in a modern apartment, with a large poster of The Founding of the Nation on the wall.

Julia Andrews, in her book on the art of the People's Republic, suggested that Dong's solution was not entirely satisfactory as the microphones dominate the center of the painting, and Mao is diminished by the expanded space around him.

[29] Dong had suffered during the Cultural Revolution: accused of being a rightist, he was expelled from the party for two years, sent to a rural work camp, and then was rehabilitated by being made to labor as a steelworker.

Dong was unwilling to give Lin prominence he had not then had, and though he could not refuse outright at the dangerous time of the Cultural Revolution, he eventually got permission to merely remove Liu.

[30] In 1972, as part of a renovation of the Museum of the Chinese Revolution, officials wanted to exhibit Dong's painting again, but they decreed that Lin Boqu, whose white-haired figure was furthest left, must be removed.

[30] This was because the Gang of Four, then in control of China, blamed Lin Boqu (who had died in 1960) for opposing the marriage, in the revolutionary days, of Mao with Jiang Qing (one of the Four).

Sources differ on what took place regarding the painting: Chang-Tai Hung related that Dong, terminally ill with cancer, could not make the changes, so his student Jin Shangyi and another artist, Zhao Yu, were assigned to do the work.

The two feared damaging the original canvas, so made an exact replica but for the required changes, with Dong brought forth from his hospital for consultations.

[18] With the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976 and the subsequent accession of Deng Xiaoping, many of the purged figures of earlier years were rehabilitated, and the authorities in 1979 decided to bring more historical accuracy to the painting.

He placed Liu, Lin Boqu and Gao in the painting[29] and made other changes: a previously unidentifiable man in the back row now resembles Deng Xiaoping.

[36] He noted that the painting is the only "canonized" one depicting the October 1 ceremony, and that other artists have tended to give the people's perspective, subjecting themselves to Mao's gaze.

[17] The painting has never been as highly regarded in the West as in China; according to Andrews, "art history students have been known to roar with laughter when slides of it appear on the screen".