There is a legendary story about Xu Beihong.

Xu Beihong (1895- 1953) is a modern painting master and art educator who concentrates on the strengths of western art. Xu Beihong was born in the countryside and his family was poor. Father Xu is a rural teacher who is good at flowers and birds and figure painting. Xu Beihong began to study at home at the age of 4 and became interested in painting since childhood. I studied painting with my father at the age of 9, 10, and I can be my father's assistant. Doing odd jobs during busy farming and living in poverty have helped him develop a hard-working and unpretentious style and a clean and honest character. /kloc-when he was 0/3 years old, he followed his father to make a living by selling paintings when he was in famine. /kloc-at the age of 0/7, my father was seriously ill and my family went from bad to worse. The burden of a family of eight has since fallen on Xu Beihong's shoulders. He works as a painting teacher in primary and secondary schools, and also goes to Shanghai and other places to sell paintings for a living. /kloc-When I was 0/9 years old, my father died and my family became poorer.

19 15 Xu Beihong went to Shanghai again. With the help of his friends, he stayed in a corner of the "leisure club" (then the casino), worked hard and studied French at night school. He drew a horse and gave it to Gao, the curator of the art library. His younger brother Gao Qifeng appreciates his painting skills very much. At this time, although Xu Beihong was admitted to Aurora University, he had no money to study. Fortunately, he got a grant from Gao Qifeng. Later, I met Kang Youwei and had the opportunity to observe Kang's collection of inscriptions. His view of art was also influenced by Kang Youwei. 19 17 Xu Beihong went to Tokyo to study fine arts and returned to Beijing in autumn. At the invitation of Cai Yuanpei, he was appointed as the tutor of Peking University Painting Research Association and met Chen Shiceng. 19 19 to study in France. I studied sketching in the studio of the famous painter Dayang, 192 1 went to Germany, studied in the studio of the painter CommScope, and returned to Paris the following year. 1925 returned to China via Singapore. The following spring, he went to Paris, painted in Brussels, Belgium, and traveled to Switzerland and Italy.

1927 After returning to China, he served as a professor in the Art Department of Central University, director of the Art Department of Shanghai Nanguo Art Institute and dean of Peking University Art Institute. From 65438 to 0933, he brought China's modern paintings to exhibitions in France, Germany, Belgium, Italy and the Soviet Union. During the Anti-Japanese War, he took his works to exhibitions in Southeast Asian countries such as Nanyang and India, and all the proceeds were donated to refugees in the motherland.

On the eve of liberation, the Kuomintang government sent a plane to pick up Xu Beihong and a group of famous professors to Nanjing, but Xu Beihong refused. After liberation, he was invited to attend the World Peace Conference as a representative of China, and served as the president of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. He was elected as a member of the Standing Committee of the All-China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, a representative of the China People's Political Consultative Conference, and the chairman of the All-China Artists Association. 1952, when he was ill, he donated his life-long creation and all his treasured works to the country. 1953 died of illness and lived only 59 years old. The state has established a memorial hall for this great artist, Xu Beihong, in Beijing, and has preserved more than 1000 of his works. He created thousands of works in his life and cultivated and discovered a large number of outstanding artists.

Xu Beihong is good at Chinese painting, oil painting, especially sketch. His paintings are full of passion and superb skills. Famous oil paintings include The River Behind Me and Tian Heng 500 Scholars, while Chinese paintings include Nine Square Heights, One Mountain in Gong Yu and Joining up with Tokyo. Nothing can better reflect Xu Beihong's personality and express his thoughts and feelings than the horses he painted. He observed and studied the muscles, bones and facial expressions of horses for a long time, and drew thousands of sketches. Therefore, the horse map he painted is vigorous, unrestrained, implicit, intense and magnificent, full of form and spirit. Other figures, lions, cats and other works are also of good quality and quantity. His paintings adhere to the principle of "learning from nature and seeking truth".