A Group of Horses
2 min readPainter: Xu Beihong
Painting Year:1940
Material: silk scroll
Dimension: vertical length of 109 centimeters and horizontal length of 121 centimeters Collection Place: Xu Beihong Memorial Hall
In May 1940, Xu Beihong was in India. He heard that Chinese army won great victory over the Japanese invaders in the north Hubei. With lofty sentiments and aspirations, he drove the brush to paint A Group of Horses. The thin horses feature accurate structure and vivid posture. These horses standing still are robust and strong, which are able to move unhindered. In this way, the painter expressed his jubilant feelings. In terms of expressive approach, this artwork features bold brushwork, unconstrained ink color, contrast between black and white and accurate shape in freehand style.
Art Master
Xu Beihong(1895-1953)
Xu Beihong was a famous and art educator, who was a native of Yixing, Jiangsu. He was skilled in the traditional Chinese painting and oil painting. He formed his own school by way of integrating both western and traditional Chinese styles. His artistic propositions and paintings greatly infuenced the Chinese art comnunity in the 20th century. In the field of traditional Chinese painting, he enjoyed greatest techniquesfor painting horse and fgure. His paintings of horse are famous at home and abroad. In the Chinese painting history, Xu Beihong is a unique master who is adept in painting horse.
Story Corner
Xu Beihong andScrol1 of 87 Immortals was created in the Tang Dynasty, which is a national-class treasure. In 1937, Xu Beihong bought this long scroll with”gold yuan”notes with par value of 10,000 and his seven artworks in Hong Kong. He carefully collected it and affxed the seal of”Bei Hong Sheng Ming(i.e.,”life of Xu Beihong”)”on it.
After War of Resistance against Japan(1937-1945) broke out, Xu Beihong came to Kunming. In 1942, the Japanese airplanes attacked from the air. The air-defense warning sounded. Xu Beihong and many people rushed to air-raid shelter. After the Japanese airplanes left away, Xu Beihong went home and found Scroll of 87 was missing. He felt light-headedness and suffered from incompletely cured illness of hypertension since then.
In 1944,u Beihong’s student saw Scroll of 87 Immortals in Chengdu. Informed of this new, Xu Beihong entrusted other people to fnd it after many setbacks. And Xu Beihong bought back Scroll of 87Immortals at the cost of”gold yuan”notes with par value of 200,000 and ten artworks.
This masterpiece, treasured as the life, fnally remained in China. It is currently collected in Xu Beihong Menoria Hall.
standing on reverse side, this These two horses take There are no reins on these standing on obverse side.
