after returning from Japan, Xu Beihong was hired as a tutor of Peking University Painting Research Association. During my stay in Beijing, I got to know celebrities from all walks of life, such as Cai Yuanpei, Chen Shiceng, Mei Lanfang and Lu Xun, and was deeply influenced by the ideological trend of the New Culture Movement, and established democratic and scientific ideas.
Studying in Europe is tireless
With the support of Beiyang government, 24-year-old Xu Beihong went to France to study painting. At the beginning of his arrival in Europe, he visited the British Museum, the National Gallery, the exhibition of the Royal Academy and the Louvre Art Museum in France, and witnessed a large number of outstanding works since the Renaissance. Xu Beihong deeply felt that the Chinese paintings he had made in the past were "clumsy and clumsy, unable to move the rope, like a horse without a rein." Therefore, he studied painting assiduously, and was admitted to the Paris School of Fine Arts, where he was taught by Mr. Fleming and began to receive formal western painting education. Fleming is good at figure painting with historical themes. His paintings pay attention to the harmonious collocation and mutual contrast of colors, which has a great influence on the formation of Xu Beihong's oil painting style in the future.
Xu Beihong enjoys training the basic skills of western painting every day. He studies at the Paris School of Fine Arts in the morning, paints models at the Syrion Institute in the afternoon, and sometimes takes time to observe various exhibitions. During this period, he was lucky enough to get to know Da Yang, a disciple of the famous painter Ke Luo, and arrived at Yang Studio for advice with his paintings every Sunday. The artistic thought of advocating "don't be obsessed with fashion, don't be complacent" and paying attention to silent painting had a great influence on him, which made him not follow the increasingly prosperous modernist painting style in France at that time, but study the academic art since the European Renaissance in a down-to-earth manner, and master the skillful painting skills while inheriting the rigorous and perfect modeling characteristics of classical art. After studying abroad for four years, Xu Beihong's painting level has reached a level comparable to that of artists of the same period in Europe, and his oil painting "The Old Woman" was selected for the French National Art Exhibition (Salon).
Xu Beihong was forced to transfer to Berlin, Germany, where the consumption level was low, because the Beiyang government once suspended tuition fees. There, Xu Beihong still missed every opportunity to learn. He consulted the painter CommScope, went to the museum to copy the paintings of the famous painter Rembrandt, and often went to the zoo to draw various animals such as lions, tigers and horses to improve his sketching ability.
When Xu Beihong regained the funds for studying abroad, he immediately returned to France from Germany to continue his studies. He seized every inch of time, under the regular and systematic training of famous teachers and his tireless efforts, his painting level was improved day by day, and he created a series of excellent sketches and oil paintings with portraits, human bodies and landscapes as the themes, such as "Caressing a Portrait of a Cat", "The Old Man Holding a Stick" and "Self-portrait".
Xu Beihong also visited Brussels, the capital of Belgium, Milan, Florence, Rome and Switzerland in the last stage of his trip to Europe. He was intoxicated by the beautiful exotic scenery, and benefited greatly from the excellent works of European painting masters. His eight-year career in Europe has shaped his aesthetic interest, creative concept and artistic style for the rest of his life.