Xu Beihong (1895-1953)
Xu Beihong is a modern painting master and art educationist. When he was a child, he learned poem writing, painting and calligraphy from his father. In 1916, he got his higher education at Shanghai Fudan University, majoring in French, where he studied sketch by himself and went out working to support his study. In 1917, he went to study art in Japan for a short period. Then he came back to teach as tutor at Peking University's Art School. In 1919, where he studied painting on oil media and sketch. He traveled far and wide through Western Europe to observe, imitate and study art. In 1927, he went back to China and worked on several posts such as head of the Art Department of Shanghai South-China Art Academy, professor of the Art Department of National Central University in Nanjing, the former capital city of the Republic of China, head of the Art School of Peking University. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he was appointed as Chairman of the Chinese Artists' Association and President of the Central Academy of Fine Arts.
In painting, Xu Beihong advocates realistic art and emphasizes realism and the nature imitation capability. He is good at sketching, oil painting and Chinese painting. His drawing and sketches are subjected mostly to figures, portraits in very realistic composition, a wonderful combination of line and dimension. He also specializes in depicting figures and landscape using oil media. His work showcases a thought of loryalty to his motherland and humanism. By bringing western painting techniques into his Chinese traditional art, his Chinese paintings are unique. For long, he has engaged himself as an art educator, advocating that a good master of the basic painting techniques were the foundation in teaching, and that the creative thoughts were based on realism restrictively. As an outcome, a large group of graduates all became top professionals in their career life.
Xu's masterworks on oil media include Tianheng and Five Hundred Brave Men, Jiu Fanggao, Spring Drizzles in Li River, Morning Song, Portrait of Tagore, Galloping Horse, etc., and a variety of painting books and research papers were published too. Xu Beihong passed away in Beijing on September 26, 1953. Later on, Xu Beihong Memorial Hall was established in Beijing to collect and display his work.
Galloping Horse by Xu Beihong