Description

Chinese painting of a beautiful lady with a fan by Zhang Da-Qian (Chang Dai-chien) the famous 20th century artist, 张爰 Zhang Yuan (1899-1983). Painted in ink and light colors on paper. A beauty in a white dress leans demurely on a rock, a fan resting on her chin. One of the best-known and most prodigious Chinese artists of the twentieth century. Originally known as a traditionalist painter, by the 1960s he was also renowned as a modern impressionist and expressionist painter. When he was young, Zhang Yuan was captured by bandits and held for ransom. When the bandit chief ordered him to write a letter home demanding a ransom, he was so impressed by the boy’s brushmanship that he made the boy his personal secretary. During the more than three months that he was held captive, he read books of poetry which the bandits had looted from raided homes. When he was grown, he lived in Japan, Argentina, Brazil, California and Taiwan. While living in Carmel, California in the 1960’s he became popular, having his first solo exhibition at Stanford University.

Dimensions: Scroll size: 96″ high x 25 1/2″ wide (29″ wide including rollers). Size of artwork: 45 1/4″ high x 20 1/2″ wide