Beschreibung:

ZHANG DAQIAN (1899-1983)Lotus, 1981
Ink and colour on paper, hanging scroll mounted and framed, inscribed and signed, with five seals of the artist, dated twenty-ninth day, fourth month, Xinyou year (1981), seventieth year (of the Republic), dedicated to Zhengyan, framed and glazed. 95cm (37 3/8in) high x 47cm (18 1/2in) wide.Footnotes1981年 張大千(1899-1983) 蓮花圖 設色紙本 鏡框
題識：七十年辛酉 (1981) 四月二十九日， 寫似正言世仁兄雅教。八十三叟爰。台北外雙溪摩耶精舍。
鈐印：張爰之印、大千居士、摩耶精舍、 大千世界、一隻眼
Provenance: Mr. and Mrs. Koo Tsien-yen, Palo Alto, California
Christie's Hong Kong, 25 November 2014, lot 1716
來源：顧正言伉儷，帕羅奧圖，加利福尼亞
香港佳士得，2014年11月25日，拍品編號1716
The Koo family immigrated to Palo Alto, California in 1963. While in California, Mr. Koo met and befriended Zhang Daqian and his son through their love for the arts and Chinese antiquities. In 1972, Mr. Koo was instrumental in putting together 'Chang Dai-chien: A Retrospective Exhibition' at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco.
Zhang Daqian (1899-1983) is considered one of the greatest Chinese artists of the 20th century. He was born in Sichuan Province. In 1917 he went to Kyoto to learn textile dying techniques and later returned to Shanghai in 1919 to establish a successful career selling his paintings. In the late 1920s and 1930s, Zhang moved to Beijing where he befriended other famous artists, including Yu Feian, Wang Shensheng, Ye Qianyu, Chen Banding, Qi Baishi, and Pu Xinyu. In the early 1940s, Zhang led a group of artists in copying the Buddhist wall paintings in the Mogao and Yulin caves. It was from this time that he made great advances in his use of line and colour, and became more skilled at painting lotuses in the meticulous gongbi style. From the 1960s, he tended toward more expressionistic brushwork with splashed ink techniques. Over his artistic career of nearly six decades, he tirelessly studied the painting of lotuses, which became one of his most signature subjects.
Throughout his life, Zhang had a fascination with lotuses, which since the Song dynasty scholar Zhou Dunyi (1017-1073) were considered 'pure and solemn, like the bearing of a gentleman'. Zhang painted countless works of lotuses and in his youth, he began by imitating works by ancient masters such as Xu Wei (1521-1593) and Bada Shanren (1626-1705), both of whom were also known for their lotus paintings.
See for example, 'pink lotuses on a gold screen' by Zhang Daqian, which was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 5 April 2023, lot 5004. Compare also with a related painting of pink lotus by Zhang Daqian, which was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 1 December 2015. See also another painting of lotus by Zhang Daqian, which was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 30 April 2022, lot 3098.