After returning from Japan, Xu Beihong was hired as the tutor of "Painting Research Association" in Peking University. During my stay in Beijing, I got to know Cai Yuanpei, Chen Shiceng, Mei Lanfang, Lu Xun and other celebrities from all walks of life, and was deeply influenced by the ideological trend of the New Culture Movement, and established the idea of democracy and science.
Study tirelessly in Europe.
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 of France, the exhibition of the Royal Academy of Sciences and the Louvre Museum of France, and witnessed a large number of outstanding works since the Renaissance. Xu Beihong deeply felt that his Chinese paintings in the past were "clumsy and clumsy, unable to move the rope, like a horse without reins." Therefore, he studied painting hard, was admitted to the Paris School of Fine Arts, studied under 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 contrast of colors, which has a great influence on the formation of Xu Beihong's oil painting style later.
Xu Beihong likes to train the basic skills of western painting every day. He studies at the Paris Academy of Fine Arts in the morning, paints models at Syrion Academy in the afternoon, and sometimes finds time to watch various exhibitions. During this period, he was lucky enough to meet Dayang, a disciple of the famous painter Crowe, and came to Yang's 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 four years of studying abroad, Xu Beihong's painting level has reached the level of European artists at the same time, and his oil painting "The Old Lady" was selected for the French National Art Exhibition.
Because the Beiyang government once interrupted tuition fees, Xu Beihong was forced to transfer to Berlin, Germany, where the consumption level was low. There, Xu Beihong still missed every opportunity to study. 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, with the formal systematic training of famous teachers and his unremitting efforts, his painting level improved day by day, and he created a series of excellent sketches and oil paintings with portraits, human bodies and landscapes as themes, such as Portrait of Cats, Old Man Holding a Stick and Self-portrait.
At the end of his trip to Europe, Xu Beihong also visited Brussels, Belgium, Milan, Florence, Rome and Switzerland. He was intoxicated by the beautiful exotic scenery and benefited a lot from the excellent works of European painting masters. His eight-year career in Europe shaped his aesthetic taste, creative ideas and artistic style for the rest of his life.