Inherit For Three Thousand Years

Xu Beihong is the founder of modern Chinese art, an outstanding painter and art educator, especially famous for painting horses.

The galloping horses described by him can be running or jumping, hissing or whistling, in a variety of poses, outstanding, and bold, and powerful in writing.

The first painting Xiao Yao took out was Xu Beihong's representative masterpiece "Eight Horses".

This brush is full of ink, majestic, and vivid, and it should be Xu Beihong's middle-aged masterpiece.

In this work, the brush is strong and strong. The technique uses Chinese ink painting as the main means of expression. It also uses Western perspective, anatomy, etc., to vividly depict the horse's sassy and heroic posture.

Looking at the smudges, they are all applied in accordance with the shape and structure of the horse, and the ink color is rich and light, which not only expresses the shape of the horse, but does not affect the charm of the ink color.

Xu Beihong's horse is a product of Chinese and Western fusion, and this fusion is extremely successful.

This work shows extremely high artistic skills and wide-ranging artistic accomplishment. It is a model of applying the past to the present and applying the foreign to the Chinese. The horses in the painting are unique in shape and magnificent, creating a novel and unique style, giving people vitality and strength, and expressing an inspiring positive spirit.

"Eight Horses" can become Xu Beihong's representative work, and it is well-known in the world, and it is really admirable in terms of art.

There are two main reasons why it is so admired:

First of all, the horse he painted clearly and concentratedly shows the author's thoughts, feelings and spirit of the times, and this feeling, spirit is closely connected with the thoughts and wishes of the general public, and is easier to be understood and welcomed by the masses.

The horses he paints are all bareback, unbridled horses, or galloping through the fields of autumn grass and mountains, or standing and looking forward to the willow bank in the spring breeze, or thirsty for drinking in the long river, or lingering in the fragrant grass. This is very different in artistic conception from the horses in the royal stud farms or the names contributed by the Gentiles led by the ancient Chinese painters.

The horse in his paintings is a symbol of longing for freedom and desire to move forward. It mainly expresses the horse's heroic momentum and tireless spirit. Sometimes it also reflects the mood of sadness and anxiety. This is the mental state of the horse in his painting, and it is also positive. It is the expression of the author's own mood and personality, which is more in line with the characteristics of the era in which he lived.

Secondly, his artistic achievements in painting horses are closely related to his creative path, which is worth noting.

The age when he studied, grew up, developed, and matured in art was a period of fierce turbulence and transformation from around the May Fourth Movement to the founding of New China.

In painting, there are contradictions between the long-standing national tradition and the strong influence of Western paintings, the contradiction between the content of new ideas and the old forms, and the contradictions of various tendencies such as innovation, conservation, compromise, blind use or simple blending.

Although Xu Beihong has learned Chinese and Western knowledge, his creative leading ideas always reflect real life, express the spirit of the times, insist on innovation and creation, oppose blind obedience and conservativeness; insist on carrying forward the excellent traditions that the public loves, and at the same time absorb beneficial external factors to develop and enrich traditional art Performance ability.

In his practice of painting horses, he creatively embodies these spirits and principles. He not only gives full play to the vivid rhythmic changes of Chinese ink and wash painting skills, but also combines boldness and subtlety. Shows the author's strong personal style. Therefore, his achievements in painting horses also clearly reflect his creative path worthy of attention.

Xu Beihong has many paintings with horses as the subject, and this painting is definitely a masterpiece of its kind. In addition, it is a large-scale work, about one meter in width and three meters in length. Xiao Yao estimated that this The value of the painting should be around 120 million.

Next, he got the "Zodiac Book" in his hand. This set of pictures is not only an orphan in Xu Beihong's life, it is also one of the rarer works even in the history of painting.

Xu Beihong is a master of modern animal painting. This set of pictures uses the Zodiac as the theme, and "The Zodiac Picture" is the only painting in his life, and it is also the only one at home and abroad.

The animals in the whole set of albums are accurate in shape, clever in composition, and elegant in color.

In order to highlight the different character traits of animals, the creative technique changes accordingly.

In the past, the chic, mighty, and heroic temperament and charm of animals in Xu Beihong's works have been transformed into well-behaved, gentle, and docile.

For example, depicting a thin and smart mouse, first without bones, and then slightly shaved; the honest and diligent cow combines lines and blocks to highlight the physical structure; weakens the ferocity of the tiger and replaces it with meekness; the rabbit is cute; Long Yu Clouds, spitting water column, drawing on the traditional composition, using different levels of ink to express light and shadow; spirit snakes wrapped around branches, a calm appearance; painted horses highlight the momentum and strong posture; warm goats stand quietly on the front; climbing on the tree The monkey is drawn with burnt ink to highlight the texture of the body hair; the rooster is strong and stands proudly sideways; the loyal and stable dog and the fat round pig also use the ink bone to outline the body structure.

Xu Beihong's solid sketch foundation and realistic skills are fully demonstrated in this album.

Taking into account the artistic value of this painting and the uniqueness of the subject matter, Xiao Yao estimated that the value of this painting should be at least about 100 million yuan.

The next three works are relatively ordinary, the highest price is not more than 20 million.

After seeing the last three oil paintings, Xiao Yao was surprised and delighted.

Each of these three oil paintings is a masterpiece of exquisite works, but Xiaoyao has never seen relevant records.

The three oil paintings are "Self-Portrait", "Little Warrior" and "Blood and Fire".

The artistic achievements of these three works are very high, even surpassing "Portrait of Miss Jenny" and "Let Down Your Whip".

Especially "Blood and Fire", even if compared with Mr. Xu's oil paintings "Nine Fang Gao" and "The Foolish Old Man Moves the Mountain", it is not inferior or even worse.

This is a rare work describing the subject of the War of Resistance Against Japan. The particularity of its subject matter, coupled with its superb artistic appeal, once disclosed, this painting will surely become Mr. Xu's most influential work!

In addition, this is a large-scale oil painting whose value is incalculable. Once it is auctioned, it will definitely shock the art world and create the highest auction record for Mr. Xu's work. If it is necessary to estimate the price, Xiao Yao thinks it should be at least 300 million yuan, and even 500 million yuan is normal.

Even "Little Warrior" and "Self-Portrait", once they are sold, they will surely be able to sell for a price of more than 100 million yuan.

These three masterpieces of Mr. Xu’s oil paintings are definitely a pleasant surprise. Xiao Yao thinks that this is probably one of the 40 masterpieces of oil paintings that Mr. Xu has lost.

Mr. Xu created more than 100 oil paintings in his lifetime, of which 40 were lost in Xinjiapo due to the war. Most of these works have not been heard.