Zhang Songhe (1912-2005) was from Guangdong Province. In 1930, he studied painting in the Guangzhou Art Museum and Western painting in the Guangzhou Academy. In 1935, he graduated in sculpture. After having worked in peasant villages teaching art, he moved to Shanghai in 1937. He joined the Party in 1938 and returned to Guangzhou, where he worked with the anti-Japanese resistance movement. In 1948, he went to the North China liberated area. After 1949, he worked on various monumental sculpture projects in Beijing, including the Martyrs' Memorial on Tiananmen Square. From 1958 on, Zhang was attached to the Fine Arts and Industrial Design Department of Beijing Normal University.

Although Zhang is mainly known as a sculptor and calligrapher, he did participate in high profile design assignments, including a 1951 Mao portrait. This image, one of the early official Mao-portraits, was designed in collaboration with Xin Mang, Zuo Hui and others.