Xu Beihong (Vertical and Horizontal)

Author: Zi Du, Huo Yanwen (editors)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-09-01
Features: What I call art is to exert one's effort to make the creation reveal no form; what I call beauty is to use the sensitive perception to dominate the additions and subtractions, creating a natural realm. Art that is transmitted through art can stand without beauty, but beauty can never exist without art. Art is only worthy of reference, while beauty is enough to captivate one's playfulness. – Xu Beihong on Art
Xu Beihong (1895-1953) was a modern painter and art educator, originally from Yixing, Jiangsu. His given name was Fengkang. His father, Xu Dazhang, was a renowned local painter skilled in poetry, calligraphy, and seal carving. He did not pursue fame or status but preferred depicting everyday scenes, achieving great proficiency in figure painting, landscape painting, and flower-and-bird painting. His mother, Lady Lu, was a simple and kind rural woman. Xu Beihong was the eldest son in the family, with five younger siblings.
When Xu Beihong was born, the Treaty of Shimonoseki between China and Japan had just been signed, plunging the Chinese people into profound suffering. The Xu family's life became even more impoverished, but his father never abandoned his education. At the age of six, Xu Beihong began to learn reading. In addition to his studies, he had a particular fondness for painting, which was opposed by his father. However, his father promised to teach him painting after he finished reading the Zuo Zhuan.
By the age of nine, Xu Beihong had completed reading the Book of Songs, Book of Documents, Book of Changes, Book of Rites, and Analects, and began learning painting from his father. After completing his daily lessons, he would copy a landscape or figure painting by Wu Youru. His father also taught him to sketch from life, drawing portraits of his siblings and neighbors. Once, when Xu Dazhang returned from an outing, he asked who had visited. Xu Beihong had silently sketched the visitor's portrait on his palm, which his father could clearly see at a glance. This demonstrated his extraordinary ability to capture the features of a person.