Zhang Daqian was a painter and collector, and one of the most renowned Chinese artists of the 20th century. He started as a guohua painter and by the 1960s he also become a renowned modern impressionist and expressionist painter. In the late 1950s, his eyesight was deteriorating which led him to explore and develop his splashed color style combining abstract expressionism with traditional Chinese styles of painting. In the 1970s, he mentored painter Minol Araki and in 1957, he famously met Picasso in The Louvre and Musée Guimet in Paris where both were invited to hold exhibitions.