Artist - Zhang Da Qian 张大千

Zhang Daqian (simplified Chinese: 张大千; traditional Chinese: 張大千; pinyin: Zhāng Dàqiān; Wade-Giles: Chang Ta-Chien) (May 10, 1899 - April 2, 1983) was one of the best-known and most prodigious Chinese artists of the twentieth century. Originally known as a guohua (traditionalist; 國畫) painter, by the 1960's he was also renowned as a modern impressionist and expressionist painter. Chang is regarded as one of the most gifted master forgers of the twentieth century.

Background
Born in a family of artists in Neijiang, Sichuan, China, he studied textile dyeing techniques in Kyoto, Japan and returned to establish a successful career selling his paintings in Shanghai. A staunch supporter of the Kuomintang, he left China in 1948 and moved to Mogi das Cruzes, Brazil, and then to Carmel, California, before finally settling in Taipei, Taiwan.[1]

A meeting between Zhang and Picasso in Antibes in 1953 was viewed as a summit between the preeminent masters of Eastern and Western art. The two men exchanged paintings at this meeting.[2]

Forgeries
Chang's forgeries are difficult to detect for many reasons. First, his ability to mimic the great Chinese masters:

So prodigious was his virtuosity within the medium of Chinese ink and colour that it seemed he could paint anything. His output spanned a huge range, from archaising works based on the early masters of Chinese painting to the innovations of his late works which connect with the language of Western abstract art."[3]

Second, he paid scrupulous attention to the materials he used. "He studied paper, ink, brushes, pigments, seals, seal paste, and scroll mountings in exacting detail. When he wrote an inscription on a painting, he sometimes included a postscript describing the type of paper, the age and the origin of the ink, or the provenance of the pigments he had used." [4] Third, he often forged paintings based on descriptions in catalogues of lost paintings; his forgeries came with ready-made provenance. [4]

Chang's forgeries have been purchased as original paintings by many major art museums in the United States, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston:

Of particular interest is a master forgery acquired by the Museum in 1957 as an authentic work of the tenth century. The painting, which was allegedly a landscape by the Five Dynasties period master Guan Tong, is one of Zhang’s most ambitious forgeries and serves to illustrate both his skill and his audacity.[5]

James Cahill, professor emeritus of Chinese art at the University of California, Berkeley, has claimed that the painting "The Riverbank," a 10th century masterpiece from the Southern Tang Dynasty, held by the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, is likely another Chang Dai-chien forgery.[6]

Museum curators are cautioned to examine all questionable Chinese paintings of all genres with the query, "Could this be by Zhang Daqian?"[5] Joseph Chang, curator of Chinese art at the Sackler Museum, posits that practically every notable collection of Chinese art contains a forgery by the master painter.[6]

张大千——山水、花鸟和人物,1957年，以写意画《秋海棠》被纽约国际艺术学会选为世界大画家，并荣获金奖。
张大千：（1901-1984）名爱，又名秀，季菱，字大千，别号大千居士，或迳署“署人张大千”。四川内江人，幼年受擅长绘画的母亲和以画虎著称，自号“虎痴”的二哥张善 的熏陶指引，并从名师曾农髯，李梅阉学诗文、书法和绘画。除临摹历代名迹外，又遍游名山大川，以造化为师，经过刻苦钻研，获得了卓越揲诚就。青年时代，即与二哥张善 齐名，二十多岁，曾赴日本留学，学过染织，回国后，一度迷于佛学，曾去宁天童寺“皈依佛门”，想当和尚，据说，他怕在头上烫九个香记，只好等待别了师父弘筏大和尚，回到现实世界来，青年时期就能画一手很好的具有石涛、八大人画风的作品，几可乱真，所以有“南方石涛”之称。他早年画的《石涛画册》，竟被著名鉴赏家、画家陈半丁作为石涛“真迹”珍藏起来，以夸耀于画友面前，被张大千识破指出，后来传为佳话，足以证明千在二十几岁在摹拟古人传统绘画的功力和成就，已经是惊人了。张大千于1940年后，用了两年半的时间，对于我国敦煌洞窟，逐个整理编号，进行临摹，丰富了绘画技法。1948年适居香港，后又旅居印度、法国、巴西等国。1984年病逝台湾，享年八十四岁。
张大千以擅长画荷花著称，素有“古今画荷的登峰造极”之誉，此次荣宝春季拍卖会上，还有一幅张大千画于1980年的《荷花》拍卖，估价150万元至250万元。

Flower and Bird Paintings

Example this drawing has been purchased by Reader Digits for USD1.4 million.

Landscape Painting

Sold at RMB803 Million

Figure Paintings

More pictures, pls refer to below link
http://www.chinaonlinemuseum.com/gallery-zhang-daqian.php

http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4d2de52401000b2n.html

I love the unique of the picture where the color of the leaves.... green? blue?...

Lotus flowers
In Buddhism, lotus flowers mean purity of speech, mind and body rising above the waters of desire and attachment. White symbolizes spiritual perfection and complete mental purity.
Blue means wisdom, knowledge and victory over the senses.

Three Lotus flowers
Number Three represents solid, real, substantial, complete and entire.


Two blue leaves
Number Two is kindness, balance, tact, equalization, and duality.
Blue is seen as trustworthy, dependable and committed. The color of sky and the ocean, blue is perceived as a constant in our lives.

Why are there no blue leaves?
Plants get their energy for food by the process of photosynthesis. The chloroplasts in the leaves contain pigments (colors) that absorb red and blue light and reflect green
and yellow light. Since leaves depend on photosynthesis and since the blue
light is needed, then a plant would die without using the blue light. So no
blue light is reflected and so you don't see any blue light coming from any
leaves. Sometimes leaves are red, but underneath the red there is green.