Master of modern Chinese painting fusing East and West, famed for painting horses
One of the founders of modern Chinese art. Having studied in France, he brought Western drawing and anatomical realism back to China and argued for using them to reform traditional Chinese painting. He is most famous for his ink-painted galloping horses — manes flying, hooves off the ground, at once carrying the spirit of Chinese brushwork and the sinew of Western form, becoming a symbol of the national spirit. As an important art educator, he deeply shaped several generations of Chinese painters.
Xu Beihong’s galloping horses often appeared in moments of national crisis — heads high, hooves striving, ever pressing forward — read as an image of the Chinese nation’s unyielding spirit. He injected Western realist bone-structure into ink painting, so the horse is at once "lifelike" and "full of spirit" — under his brush, a single horse carried the hope and cry of an age.
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.