243 - ZHANG DAQIAN (1899–1983)

ZHANG DAQIAN (1899–1983) Dimensions: 88 cm x 42 cm A hanging scroll depicts an elegantly dressed woman emerging amid soft banks of cloud, accompanied by a smaller attendant figure at her side. The principal figure wears a high, blue ornament in her dark hair and richly patterned robes in turquoise, red and cream. Her face is delicately outlined, with the slight turn of the head and the graceful arrangement of the hands lending the composition an unhurried sense of movement. A vertical inscription and red seals occupy the upper left of the painted sheet. The imagery belongs to a Chinese pictorial vocabulary of celestial women and refined female figures, in which elaborate costume and floating clouds signal a world apart from ordinary experience. The painter balances strongly coloured textile patterns with large, open passages of pale cloud, allowing the figure to remain the clear focus. The work's visual interest lies in the contrast between meticulous costume detail, restrained facial drawing and the lightness of the surrounding clouds.