Qin Dahu (1938) hails from Penglai, Shandong Province. He graduated from the Oil Painting Department of the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts in 1963. In the 1960s and 1970s, he was a representative genre painter of revolutionary history, and active in Shanghai and the Jinan Military Region. He left the People's Liberation Army in 1985.

Qin specializes in oil painting. His works have been collected by the China Art Gallery, the Military Museum and the former Museum of the Chinese Revolution. He is a professor of the Oil Painting Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, member of the China Artists Association, director of the Chinese Oil Painters Association, and managing director of the Zhejiang Artists Association. Qin cooperated with Jin Qingjin, Li Yusheng and Wang Zheng.