In the Dictionary of China Fine Arts, there is an entry that introduces Xugu, saying that it is "neither vegetarian nor Buddha". He also "has never been to Zhuoxi Temple" and often travels between Shanghai, Suzhou and Yangzhou. He sells paintings for a living, claiming to be "free to write 3,000 paintings and beg for food on earth". It is closely related to famous marine experts such as Ren Bonian, Gao Yongzhi, Hu Gongshou, Wu Changshuo and Ni Mogeng. His calligraphy and painting are all-rounders, and he also painted in academia in his early years. He is good at flowers and fruits, flowers, birds, fish and insects, landscapes, goldfish and squirrels, and his calligraphy is exquisite. He inherited the painting styles of Jian Jiang and Cheng You of Xin 'an Painting School and traced them back to the Song and Yuan Dynasties. Influenced by Yangzhou painters such as Hua Xinluo, his paintings are old-fashioned and strange. Dry pen is partial, the color is mainly light, and occasionally there is a strong contrast color. The style is cool and novel, elegant and lively, without any stagnation, unique and unique. Wu Changshuo, a master of Shanghai School, praised it as "breaking the past with one punch and coming to the present". His masterpieces such as Plum Blossom Goldfish, Pine Crane, Chrysanthemum, Gourd, Cymbidium lucidum and Loquat are all handed down from generation to generation.
He was a famous flower-and-bird painter in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, and was called "the four outstanding painters in Shanghai in the late Qing Dynasty" together with Ren Bonian, Pu Hua and Wu Changshuo.
The characters in the virtual valley are unique in modeling and composition. He is good at adjusting and grasping the neutral, biased, positive, flat, true, false, light, heavy, hidden and white. Make the picture ethereal and have a strong sense of space. This is particularly obvious in long frames, with clever arrangement and great momentum. Virtual valley painting dares to break away from convention. Seeking innovation in the middle, combining dynamic and static, combining reality with reality, and full of business.
Xu Gu's paintings are interesting and skillful in exaggeration, and deformation is one of his great creations. At the same time, we can appreciate his art from three aspects: truthfulness, modesty and integrity. "Truth" is a bold subjective exaggeration on the basis of grasping the essence of things, so as to achieve a more vivid and superb artistic realm. "Shed" is a bold choice of modeling, and the shed in Xugu is cruel, willing, clever and skilled. "Straight" is also an obvious feature of the virtual valley pen line. Its simple lines are dignified, and the combination of straight edges makes it look like a god, sowing seeds, but not similar. He used painted lines instead of circles. He saw strength in the meal, saw edges and corners, and decided to write, which had a strong personality.
The color of virtual valley is elegant, emphasizing the unity of color tone and simple aesthetic feeling. He is also good at using white powder on colored paper and ancient gold stationery, which makes his Bai Lianhua, sliced crane hair and white powder containing stone green folding orchids look lifelike.
He has also made great achievements in boundary painting. His representative works include "Ruilian Map" and "Panorama of Rebuilding Guangfu Temple", especially the 12 realistic landscape picture book he created for Fossett in Putuo Mountain, South China Sea, which is the fusion of boundary painting and traditional painting. These are all related to the ancient art heritage that benefits Huizhou's hometown.
Poetry is an empty valley, and it is also good at writing poetry. For example, the poem "Winter Plum" says: "It is accidental that the paper is full of plum blossoms, and it is natural to be cold." Write 3000 pictures in my spare time and beg for food. "Three thousand paintings are not exaggerated words, but his heartfelt love for art. Before he died, he wrote a poem" New Year's Eve ":"The children next door rang firecrackers and every family cheered for the New Year. At this time of the new year tomorrow, the spring breeze will still be plum blossoms. Still pouring out the passionate nostalgia for life in pain. His calligraphy is majestic and lofty, with a cold and resolute atmosphere. He also likes to use Jiao Mo's dry brush, which makes him look like a human being. He is the author of Poems by a Monk in Xugu.
The representative work "He Mei Map" (vertical axis paper with imaginary valley, vertical 1248 cm, horizontal 12 1.7 cm coloring).
Gu once called virtual valley painting "clear but not dry, dense but not chaotic" This picture of the plum crane fully embodies the pen-using characteristics of Xugu. Mei Shu uses a wet pen to dilute ink, and then uses a dry pen. The lines are intermittent, and the brushwork is vigorous, and the loose embroidery forms a beautiful charm. Plum blossoms are outlined with a round pen, and the petals are like pearls and jade, which is childish and simple. The crane wrote down its head and tail feathers with a minimalist pen and thick ink. The color of the picture is light, but the crane top is awakened by scarlet, which makes the whole painting Leng Yan changeable, simple and intriguing.
Xu Gu was a unique painter in Qing Dynasty a hundred years ago. He is widely involved in landscape flowers, fruits and vegetables, birds and insects, especially wisteria goldfish. The wisteria in his works is full of new leaves and flowers, rendering a strong image of spring. Under the drooping wisteria, there is a shallow pool of water, where goldfish can be seen swimming leisurely ... Although the picture is freehand, it contains infinite vitality.
The wisteria goldfish pictures in Xugu are all titled as "Zidan Gold Medal". The so-called "purple gold medal" was originally an auspicious word to celebrate the success of dignitaries and promote wealth. Here, Xu Gu expresses the exuberant breath of nature and life subject with the tone and rhyme of "purple" and "gold", which is obviously far from its original meaning of pursuing fame and fortune. More importantly, virtual valley painting goldfish has a unique way of using ink. Writing a circle with a square, taking advantage of the situation, taking advantage of the situation, is quite individual. It can be described as a fusion of bright colors, dry brushwork and deformation. Before the virtual valley, Badashan people painted fish eyes into squares, put their eyes on the edges of their eyes, gave off cold light, and turned their eyes to the sky to show their contempt for the dignitaries. In Xu Gu's pen, not only the eyes of goldfish are square, but also the body of goldfish is square. When describing the dynamics of goldfish, he made the fish come against the current. From this spirit of sailing against the current, an inner pride and personality beauty flourished. In addition, he painted wisteria differently. The most remarkable point is that the branches and leaves of wisteria are mostly geometric figures, which is the result of "upright" with a pen. China painters have always advocated calligraphy in painting, emphasizing that "Chinese" is based on the pen-in front of the rules, Xu Gu rebelled and distanced himself from his contemporaries, so it was overwhelming in the painting world in the late Qing Dynasty. By contrast, some people say that Virtual Valley is very similar to the painting styles of contemporary western impressionist painters Cezanne, Monet and Van Gogh. This is related to Xugu's unique artistic experience: Xugu was originally named Zhu Huairen and was once a member of the Qing army. Dissatisfied with imperial rule, he was unwilling to be ordered to attack the Taiping Army and became a monk. After becoming a monk, he was not bound by Buddhist rules and regulations, "not a vegetarian, not worshipping Buddha" and "only entertaining himself with calligraphy and painting" ...
Because of Xu Gu's unique artistic career, he didn't create many works before his death. It is also because "loneliness is steep, and it is not easy for the unfamiliar to get a piece of paper", so there are even fewer masterpieces handed down from generation to generation. It is estimated that there are only about 300 original works of Virtual Valley and only five or six gold seals of purple flowers. Perhaps it is "rare things are precious", and forged virtual valley paintings have been rampant. It is said that the relevant departments are going to publish a collection of virtual valley paintings and invite experts to take a look at the collected scrolls. As a result, one third of them are fake paintings, which shows how rampant the counterfeiters are. However, experts also pointed out that the key to identifying the authenticity of Xugu's works is to see if the finishing touch of goldfish is useless. In fact, the embarrassment of counterfeiting famous paintings is nothing more than this: the shape is easy to get, but the shape is difficult, that is, the so-called "Danqing is difficult to write as a spirit."