http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1055900.shtml Van Gogh didn’t sell a single painting during his lifetime, and he spent his entire life scribbling away. One hundred years later, a rural boy in China painted more than 100,000 copies of Van Gogh paintings and supported his family. This young man is Zhao Xiaoyong 赵小勇, because he heard that he could earn 3,000 yuan a month for making oil paintings, he went from being a bricklayer to a painter in Dafen village 大芬村 that specialized in producing world famous paintings. In the village of Dafen many painters like Zhao, have formed an assembly line for copying famous paintings, some are painting the eyes, some are painting the mouth. A professional painter elsewhere copying a famous painting may take 2 days, but in Dafen village painters take only a few hours. In order to copy Van Gogh’s paintings better, Zhao would study Van Gogh’s books and films. He knew the paintings like the back of his hand as he got to know them better. Zhao always dreamed of seeing the master’s work in person.
In 2014, Zhao Xiaoyong finally went to the Van Gogh Museum of Art. In the souvenir shop outside the museum he also saw his own products for sale for 10 times his price. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/chinas-van-goghs-dafen-documentary-1315319