In his painting creation, Xu Beihong advocated "exerting the subtlety to achieve the broadness"; for Chinese painting, he advocated "the good ancient methods should be kept, the outdated ones should be inherited, the bad ones should be changed, and the unsatisfactory ones should be corrected." Add to it, and integrate the admirable elements of Western painting.” His paintings can combine ancient and modern Chinese and foreign techniques and have their own unique style. He is not only good at Chinese painting, but also has high attainments and achievements in sketching and oil painting. The characters pay attention to realism and convey the spirit; the flowers, birds, landscapes, and animals painted are concise, lively, and full of vitality. He is especially famous at home and abroad for his paintings of horses.
Horses are Mr. Xu Beihong’s favorite subject in his life. His paintings of galloping horses, with vivid and unrestrained pen and ink, galloped in the painting world with the wind and thunder of the times, bringing a fresh, powerful and vigorous atmosphere to the Chinese painting world at that time. Nowadays, the newly built "Yixing Xu Beihong Memorial Hall" in Yixing City, Jiangsu Province, Xu's hometown, displays Mr. Xu Beihong's calligraphy and painting works in different historical periods (including his teenage studies, works after he became famous, letters, etc.). The horses he painted, whether galloping, standing, walking, drinking, or grouping, are all endowed with abundant vitality. Among them is an ink painting of galloping horses painted by Xu in his early years. The original painting is 68 centimeters long and 110 centimeters wide (see attached photo). This horse has no saddle or reins, and is running wildly in the vast wilderness. Judging from its demeanor and momentum, it is a horse with a high spirit and touching spirit. The painting is simple and elegant, the brushwork is vigorous and solemn, the purple color is smooth, and there are occasional references to Western techniques, all of which are unique to Mr. Xu Beihong. This work not only shows the majesty and majesty of the galloping horse from the appearance, but more importantly, expresses the galloping horse's docility, perseverance, agility and other character traits from the inner spiritual essence. It can be said to be Xu's proud work in his early years. There is no inscription on it, but there is a seal of "Prince and Grandson of the East China Sea". The seal is authentic. This was a relic found in a box when Xu Beihong left western Guangdong in anger in 1931. In 1937, his family presented it to Yixing Ferry Gongzhou Dharma University.
Yixing, a water town in the south of the Yangtze River, is the birthplace and place where Xu Beihong grew up. According to Fuda Zhou's recollection, when Mr. Xu was a painting teacher at Yixing Middle School, he often took his boat to and from Yiting Bridge and Yixing City. Xu Beihong's paintings have been famous since he was a child. The ferryman wanted Mr. Xu to draw horses but was unable to speak. Once, Xu Beihong guessed his thoughts and happily agreed to paint for him in the future. Later, Mr. Xu became successful and taught at the former Central University in Nanjing. He once asked the ferryman to find a suitable guard for him. The ferryman said, "There is only a countryman named Shi Kunsheng, who lives in Yizhuang Village, Guanlin." After hearing this, Mr. Xu replied repeatedly: "Country people are very nice, very nice!" He immediately sent it to Mr. Xu's apartment in Fuhougang, Nanjing on a certain day. In the early 1930s, when Mr. Xu Beihong was a professor at the Art Department of the former Central University, he had a studio in Fu Hougang, Nanjing. There was often a couplet hanging in the room: "Be prejudiced and act your own way." It is said that this is Xu Beihong's personal copy of several large white characters with ink background from the Taishan Diamond Sutra, which is very similar to the rubbings on the stone tablet. This shows his views on art education and his attitude towards life at that time. Not long after the incident, Mr. Xu asked his family to present this painting to the ferryman. In the summer of 1975, Dr. Zhou Fuda of Fuchuan Gong presented this ink painting of galloping horses to the country, and also presented a chicken that Xu had painted in his early years. This ink painting of galloping horses was first collected by the Yixing County Cultural Center and was authenticated as authentic by Yaming, Chairman of the Jiangsu Branch of the Chinese Artists Association. It was later selected to be included in the "Yixing Xu Beihong Memorial Hall". As early as the 1930s, Mr. Xu Beihong's ink paintings of galloping horses, unfettered by the crowd, still arrogant, and tapping into the national spirit have been passed down to generations and are famous overseas. However, those earlier than this have not yet been seen, and are extremely rare. .
Throughout the ages, how many poets have praised the heroic appearance of the galloping horse, and how many calligraphers and painters have used their unique skills for it. As early as the Three Kingdoms era, Emperor Wu of Wei, Cao Cao, had a famous saying: "The old man is in trouble, but his ambition is thousands of miles; the martyr is in his old age, and his ambition is not self-fulfilling." Poetry inspires people to make progress. Now seeing Xu Beihong's ink paintings of galloping horses, people can't help but think of many historical figures: Zhao Zilong who rode alone in the Changban Slope battle, Yue Fei who defeated Jin Wushu with his iron cavalry, King Li Chuang who shot an arrow at the Ming Dynasty Gate with his flying cavalry, Xu Ma Tuoyan, a revolutionary veteran... The galloping horse makes people's minds fly, and generates energetic and upward power.
In Mr. Xu Beihong's writings, galloping horses gallop across the vast land with their hooves in full swing. The horses are heroic and have different expressions. Some took off into the air, and some made smoke under their hooves. Some look back and look forward, and some move forward, as if they are about to burst out of the paper. These magnificent pictures of thousands of horses fighting vigorously push the history of the Chinese nation forward.
Xu Beihong, whose original name was Shoukang, was born on July 19, 1895, in Jitingqiao (Yitingqiao) Town, Yixing, Jiangsu Province. He was good at crying when he was young. Because his family was poor, he often felt sad in the middle of the night, just like the cry of wild geese, so he changed his name to Beihong. His father, Xu Dazhang, was good at calligraphy, painting and seal engraving, but his "luck" was not good and he lived in poverty all his life. He passed on all his skills to his son. Beihong inherited his family education at a young age and followed his father in reading, painting and farming. His favorite is to collect the animal pictures in the Laodao (Bandit) brand cigarette boxes. He likes the pictures of animals such as ligers and tigers, and deliberately imitates and studies them. When he was ten years old, he followed his father from Yixing to Liyang, and wrote a short boating poem on the way: "The spring water is green and diffuse, and the spring mountains are beautiful; the sail is windy, and the boat passes thousands of mountains." The scene became a poem. Reveal artistic talent. At that time, he was already able to paint and write couplets (Spring Festival couplets) for the villagers. He began to sign his paintings with "Shenzhou Boy", and also used seal seals such as "Jiangnan Commoner" and "East China Sea Wangsun", indicating his determination to revitalize China. At the age of seventeen, he served as an art teacher in three primary and secondary schools in Yixing. After being miscalculated, he relied on the support of Huang Zhenzhi, a silk merchant in Huzhou, and changed his name to "Huang Fu". He studied French at Aurora University in Shanghai, and also learned ancient Chinese and calligraphy from Kang Youwei, who praised him as a genius in the art field. It is said that when he went to Shanghai to study and make a living at the age of nineteen, the self-recommended works he sent to the Aesthetics Gallery attached to the Commercial Press were not figures, landscapes, and flowers, but a painting of a horse. When Gao Qifeng, the curator of the Aesthetics Museum at that time and a painter of the Lingnan School, saw this painting, he immediately wrote back with great praise and said: "Although the ancient Han Qian could not do it better." And this horse journal was printed and published. This is the first time Mr. Xu Beihong's horse paintings have been published.
In 1917, Xu Beihong and Ms. Jiang Biwei traveled east to Japan and became a tutor of the Painting Research Society of Peking University. In 1919, he was sent to France where he studied under the art master Da Yang. He also entered the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris to pursue further studies. Some people say that Xu Beihong was sent to study in France by Kazakhstan colleagues. This is a misinformation. According to the memories of Mr. Xu Zhucheng, a native of Yi, he was favored by Mr. Cai Zimin (Yuanpei), who recommended him to teach at Peking University, and was sent to France by Peking University for further study. It is said that how he got to know Mr. Cai, there is also a story circulating in Yixing: One summer vacation, Xu Beihong went to Beijing to visit the magnificent rivers and mountains of the North. On the train, Cha and Mr. Cai sat across from each other. He took out a pen and paper and sketched a sketch. Mr. Cai asked for it and took a look. It turned out to be a sketch of his portrait. Not only was it very similar in shape, but his expression was also vivid, ready to be drawn out. So I asked about the young man's name and current situation, and immediately invited him to work as an art teacher at Peking University after the summer vacation, and introduced him to Chen Shizeng, a famous painter at the time. Later, thanks to Mr. Cai's recommendation, he was sent to Peking University in 1919. He furthered his studies in France and went to Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy and other countries for observation and study. He studied in Europe for eight years. returning to the country in the autumn of 1927, he successively served as director of the Fine Arts Department of Shanghai Nanguo Art Institute, art professor and department director of Nanjing Central University, and dean of Peking Art Institute, where he vigorously advocated realist art activities.